Once a Royal Lady
by Sam.HoranTurtleDuck
Summary: Love. Time. Family. Aslan's decisions always grant a lesson. What is waiting for the Royal Ladies of Narnia? [Follows the three movies (OCxEd)(OCxPeter)(OCxCaspian)READ]
1. Michigan,1942

_Hello, everyone._

 _So, this is gonna be a bit crazy, but here're several things about this story:_

It's basically finished, I'm just missing the epilogue, but everything is written already. That's why I'll upload it everything at once.

The story is divided in 3 parts(you'll eventually see why)

 _Yes, it has several Oc pairings with actual characters but do not worry, you'll understand how that works after your read._

 _English is not my first language, so have a little tolerance with it._

I hope you love it, enjoyyyyy it, 'cause this is literally going to be crazy. Please, i'd love to read what you think about it.

* * *

 _Michigan, 1942_

 _1._

"So, you are leaving me alone again." It wasn't a question anymore.

"You are not alone. Granny will be here" Mama grabbed both of her cheeks and kissed her forehead in a hurry. "Be a good girl, don't..."

"Don't stay awake until late, eat all your veggies, don't talk to strangers, and don't get in trouble with grandma." With each word the little girl said, the expression in her mother's thin and long face relaxed, seeing her daughter giving up and behaving as the lady that she wanted her to become. You've said it a hundred times, a voice inside the child really wanted to say, and maybe she would've said that any other day. But she didn't want to make mother sad or angry, especially when the girl herself felt those exact emotions at that moment. "I will mother. Go in peace."

Lady Woods stopped for a second, admiring at her beautiful daughter. She took in her long, thick, brown curls, in need of a brush specially at the tips. Her sweet yellow dress that Lady's father had bought for the girl, now yelling for some ironing.

Ennie (like her mother preferred to call her) felt a hand in her shoulder and then and only then she remembered that both, mother and daughter, where not alone.

"She'll be okay" A cracking voice behind the girl said.

Ennie wanted to turn and look at her intimidating grandmother but she didn't want to lose a second without looking at her mother before she left.

"I know, mother" The tension in the room was so strong that Enola couldn't move a muscle, thinking that if she did a bomb would explode in their faces.

Lady took her suitcase and with a last glance at her daughter she left.

In her mind, Enola ran after her mother. She ran after the automobile in which her mother was going away through the main road of the mansion, tripping with her expensive shoes through the gray rocks on the dirt, ran past the fence with the cold wind whipping at her face like a hundred slaps, eventually falling to the floor, crying, hoping that her mother would have a bit of compassion and pity for her, stop the vehicle and regret her decision.

But when the girl came back to reality, her mother was long gone. She was still in the same spot, with her white-haired grandmother's hand still on her shoulder.

"May I retire to my bedroom, grandmother?" She asked in a monotone voice.

"You may"

That night, once alone, after being tucked into the great and cold bed by her grandmother, the girl cried her eyes out, muffling her sobs with the pinkish silk pillows. That night she promised herself that she wouldn't spend her days waiting for her mother's return looking and mourning like a ghost, no. She would be the happiest girl in the world, as she had been her entire short life; at least until her father had left, shortly followed by her mother.

The promised days spent on her grandmother's house became weeks, and the weeks became months. Still, Ennie's energy seemed too inexhaustible that the full mansion looked alive. If she wasn't with one of her governesses (wishes of her mother who thought that Ennie couldn't stop preparing to become a lady even with the circumstances), she would be playing pranks to her grandmother. The old lady, who had been stiff and giving the cold shoulder to the girl the first weeks had eventually warmed up to the girl, even if she'd tried to hide it. Every time the girl attempted to make the old woman laugh, the grandmother would hide behind her hand-held fan and repeat "That is not proper of a lady" or "Your mother would not be satisfied".

So, of course, the day it happened the girl wasn't afraid as she woke up and, through her window, saw the white sky melting in the horizon with the white tops of the trees and pines.

She sighted.

When she had arrived at the mansion, last winter's snow had just finished melting. The snow was back, but her mother was not.

She shook her head and put a smile on her face. She changed her clothes, took a big coat, her raining boots and took off running down the stairs, out of the mansion and into the woods.

She jumped off a large sized rock, not large enough for her to harm herself if she jumped off, but large enough for her to feel like her French governess would say: _très jolie_. She felt the rush as she ran through the woods jumping from fallen three to boulder, to puddle. Her mother would be horrorized to see her daughter jumping like a monkey here and there. God, her grandmother would be horrorized if she discovered that Ennie had ran out of the house and into the woods too early in the morning and alone. But she was so excited to see the first snow after everything that had happened to her, she couldn't resist.

She came to a stop when her lungs started to scream because of the cold air they were inhaling. She wasn't far from the mansion; being an 8-year-old, she didn't have enough stamina to go through long distances. She walked backwards until she leaned in a big wooden log behind her. But as soon as she touched it she jumped and turned around, facing it. Still, trying to catch her breath, she glanced at the log. It was big, but just a few meters large.

And it was cold. Really, really cold. Like touching ice.

The girl looked at the sky. Yes, it was snowing but it seemed like the snow had just started falling, there was no way the fallen trunk could get that temperature so quickly... but, what did she know? She was just a kid.

She grinned as a memory of her father appeared inside her head. They had been playing _hide and seek_ , two years before (she remembered perfectly because it was before things started to get bad).

While remembering her father's face peeking through the opposite opening of the trunk from the one she had entered it, Ennie noticed that the freezing log had openings at both ends of it. The girl giggled and made her way into it, just like she had done 2 years earlier.

The "freezer" as she had decided to call it, was bigger than she had expected. Years ago, she had to be lying flat on the ground, now she was crawling like a baby. Once she reached the middle of it she let herself rest all of her body on the wood, still trying to catch her breath (a terrible decision considering the freezing temperature of the wood beneath her).

She closed her eyes, hoping to hear her father's voice saying "I'm coming!"

When she opened her eyes, she realized that she had fallen asleep. The girl could predict that it had been only for a few minutes, but she dismissed those thoughts as she looked in front of her.

"Holy Jesus!" She whispered as she saw that there wasn't an exit in front of her. There was not an opening in the log, but she could have sworn that, just before she had laid down and closed her eyes, she had seen the opposite opening. It frightened her, making her turn her head around hoping that there was still the opening from where she had entered the log.

Turning around inside a dead tree's body resulted to be the most physically challenging thing she had ever done; Ennie hit her head and limbs several times, noticing that not only the trunk was not opened from both sides but that it was also smaller than she remembered, and squeaked before moving to the light.

* * *

The Pevensies were about to follow the youngest of their members towards the house of a faun and Susan Pevensie couldn't be more delighted.

Actually, she wasn't delighted at all. Every step she took in that winter wonderland...how had Lucy called it? Oh, yes, Narnia. Every step she took in Narnia it was like a slap at her face using each of the books of science she had read.

She couldn't lie. She kind of liked the aesthetic of the whole place, after playing a bit with her siblings in the snow good memories of the good old days had resurfaced in her head, and Lucy seemed so enthusiastic after the hard time they had all pulled on her, thinking she was a liar.

That was the worst part, that not only Narnia's existence challenged her logic, but Susan also liked Narnia. Up until then, she had really liked it.

In front of her Lucy stopped.

"Did you hear that?" Lucy's voice was barely a whisper.

Susan noticed that they were in an area where a lamp-post, just like there were back at England, was in the middle of it.

Edmund pointed at something way beyond the lamp-post.

A wooden log. A moving wooden log. It wasn't really moving, like "walking around", no. It was just resting there on the snow but it was shaking as if there was something inside of it.

 _Knock_.

"Did you hear it now?" Lucy asked again trying not to be loud.

Peter, always the protective one, Susan noticed, extended his arms slightly pushing his siblings behind him. He raised a finger to his lips, clearly telling them all to remain silent. He took a step forward and...

"Jesus!" A tiny voice exclaimed as its owner came out of the log's left opening.

"It's just a girl!" Susan exclaimed moving towards the log.

All the Pevensies walked to the girl as she straightened herself up.

It was a girl, Susan saw, just a small girl. Clearly younger than Lucy. How a young thing like her had ended up inside a log?

"Hello there!" Susan was the first one to speak up.

The girl had been looking at her surroundings with confusion blurring her facial features. Only then the girl looked at them.

"Hi!" The girl smiled and Susan could have sworn that she bounced a little. The little thing seemed to have a lot of energy in her.

"I don't mean to intrude, but..." Susan started.

"What where you doing inside that thing?" Edmund interrupted with a grimace.

"Oh..." The girl took a moment to pass her eyes through the four Pevensies and then sent a quick glance at the log, before returning to Edmund who had asked her a question. "You see, I wanted to see the first snow, I came to the woods and, weird me, thought it would be funny to get into that thing." The girl raised a hand to her mouth as if to tell a secret and said "It's not funny…at all." She shrugged "Anyways, I thought that grandma was the only one who lived around here" She finished and her eyes went back to their surroundings as if she was disoriented.

"Are you a Narnian?!" Lucy exclaimed

The girl looked at the youngest Pevensie and made a funny face.

"A what?"

Susan turned to Peter, her brother was already looking at her. Susan raised an eyebrow at him. First snow? Looking as lost as Susan herself in that place? Didn't seem to know what a Narnian was?

"Lucy," Susan never took her eyes out of the new girl with grey eyes who once again was looking around her as if she had lost something important. "Didn't you mention that this place has been covered in snow for years?"

"Years?" The girl asked before Lucy could answer Susan. "It just started this morning."

"Look," Peter said more to his family than to the girl "I think this girl is not from..."

"Who are you?" Edmund asked her once again with that annoying face that he had been carrying around. Susan made a mental note to talk to him later about his attitude, that had been ruining their happiness.

The girl, who seemed to have forgotten what they had just been talking about before, smiled at Susan's younger brother showing him all of her white, and some of them baby, teeth.

"I'm Enola"

"Jesus" Susan whispered to herself rapidly catching up with the girl's name meaning. Who would call her daughter like that?!

"What kind of name is that?"

"Edmund!" Lucy reprimanded him.

"Don't worry." Enola stuck her tongue out for a second "It was the name of my father's mother, and my great grandmother's name." The girl shrugged and crossed her arms. "But you can call me..." the girl stopped for a few seconds, the Pevensies waiting for her to finish it. But she ended up sneezing.

"En?" Edmund finished.

"I was going to say Ennie, but I like En better. Jesus, it's so cold in here!" The girl rubbed her hands on her crossed arms. "It's never been this cold in America!"

The Pevensies looked at each other in understanding. Somehow a wardrobe was not the only magic door to this land. Somewhere in America there was another way to get into Narnia.

Peter took off his coat, well, the coat he had borrowed from the professor's wardrobe and gave it to Enola.

"Come with us" Peter said to her.

"We have to..." Susan helped the girl to get into the enormous coat. Enola had to grab it as if she was in a princess gown since it was too big for her, of course she didn't look like a princess. She looked like a fur ball, Edmund thought. "explain some things to you."

Susan saw his older brother cross his arms to make heat. Susan sent him a look. Of course, Peter was going to give a... what? 10-year-old? girl his coat, while he got frozen. Always the gentleman.

"And where we are going, there will be a good fire!" Lucy explained taking a place beside the youngest girl in the group. Susan, who had put an arm around Peter hoping to help him to gain a bit of warm, remembered their previous plan.

"The faun, of course" Susan thought.

The Pevensies waited for the girl's answer.

"Okay!" The girl exclaimed.

Susan thought that if she had been Enola she wouldn't have just followed a group of kids who knew where. Yet the girl seemed that she would've probably been excited about everything they would've proposed to her.

They had all started to walk again. Lucy and En in the front, Peter and Susan in the middle and Edmund a little behind them.

"How old are you?" Susan heard Lucy asking.

"I'm 8"

Susan sighted.

* * *

Fool faun, fool Peter, fool beaver, fool annoying little girl.

Literally, like his mother would say, _birds of a feather flock together_. The young Enola seemed to be the younger, American, and more annoying version of Lucy.

In their way to the faun's house, Edmund's youngest sister had explained everything about Narnia to the little stranger and, said stranger, looked fascinated by the idea of being in a land with mythical creatures.

Even Peter and Susan looked fascinated by everything Lucy had said.

Then when they arrived at the faun's wrecked house, Lucy had started to talk about Narnia's queen with such disrespect Edmund couldn't tolerate it.

"A witch?" Edmund had thought "I guess it is all based in perspectives." He remembered the last conversation he had had with Narnia's queen.

Edmund, the king of Narnia.

He really liked the sound of that. And to have Peter and Susan as his servants it would be the divine justice they had always deserved. But they wouldn't listen to him. His older siblings listened to everybody except him, even a beaver!

When they got into the beavers' house, they had all gotten warm and started to talk about prophecies... And the witch was the queen? They were the ones talking about magic and the future! For all he had seen, the Queen only used his magic to make delicious Turkish delight.

How he craved for some Turkish delight.

He heard his siblings arguing with the beavers and the creatures talking about Aslan and a table and he couldn't take it anymore. He walked out of the tiny house and decided to go alone to the castle. The road wasn't easy, especially because of the snow but eventually he reached the point at which he wouldn't have to escalate anymore, just keep walking ahead.

"Hey!" He heard someone calling him. "Hey!" God, how much he was hating that voice "Boy! Wait!"

He stopped and looked around. There she was, Lucy's American clone running up to him.

"Where do you think you're going?" She yelled.

"Go back!" He yelled back and turned around.

"Nope" she reached him. "I don't remember how to get back" she giggled.

God, he didn't have what was needed to babysit. At least not at that moment.

"Where are we going?"

"I'm going to the queen's castle, you are going back" he explained.

"Wait... wasn't she the bad one?" The girl asked tugging at his sleeve since he didn't even look at her when he answered. She was starting to feel ignored and there was nothing she hated more than to be ignored. "Yes, I think I just hear the beavers talking about it " _two sons of Adam and two daughters of eve...bla bla bla_ ""

Edmund couldn't help to smile at this but he hid it very well.

" " _Peace in Narnia, bla bla, before the third daughter of eve, bla bla.._." oh, I guess I have forgotten." The girl's voice lowered as they approached the castle, it was really intimidating for her.

But inside of Edmund's head a plan was being formulated. The queen had asked him to take his sisters and brother to her castle. Maybe he could take this little girl to her instead. Yes, he would be killing two birds with one stone, he would get rid of the annoying stranger that had followed him by making her his servant and he would make the queen happy so he could get some more Turkish delight and a crown.

It had been so easy.


	2. Lucy was devastated

2.

Lucy was devastated.

Not only Mr. Tumnus had been captured by the witch, but Edmund and En too.

She hadn't had the proper time to think about her new friends and her brother, since they had been pursued by the witch's angry wolves and had been traveling through the night, trying to find a place where to rest without having to worry about the blizzard that Narnia became at nights. But, once the storm was over, she started to wonder…

Was her brother alright? And En? She had just met her for a few hours, but she had really like the girl. It was so nice not being the youngest of the group. Back at home, she didn't always have to be the youngest. There was her cousin, Eustace, but he was too young and annoying even for Lucy, who seemed to have the world's patience for every human being.

Were both her brother and new friend alright? What was the white witch doing to them right now? And Tumnus? Of course, she hadn't forgotten about her Narnian friend. Had Ed and En seen him? Was he alright?

She had to believe and trust the beavers that Aslan would help them. That was where they were heading to. To Aslan's camp, at the Stone Table, the beaver had said. He was his last hope and Lucy really wanted to hold on to that hope.

And it sparkled when Peter draw out his new sword. The one Father Christmas had just given to him.

Lucy forgot for a second all of her worries, while being with that man, Santa Claus. She would send Susan a playful smirk once in a while. Santa existed!

The white bearded man came to Lucy one more time, this time he wasn't carrying a weapon or a cordial. He had a doll.

"Dear Lucy, I feel that the one who shall carry out the following task it is you" He kneeled once again in front of her. He took Lucy's hand and rested the raggedy doll in her hand.

"It is for En, right?"

Father Christmas pursed his lips and nodded.

"Your friend, I am afraid, is not as valiant as you." He raised an eyebrow "I think none of us here is" Lucy saw Peter smiling. "Between us, there is nothing your new friend hates the most than to be alone. She couldn't sleep at nights after her parents left" Lucy raised both of her eyebrows listening the new information "Imagine how hard it will be for her to sleep now that she's away from her home."

Lucy looked at the doll and understood why she didn't need one. Santa was right, Lucy was a valiant one.

"Will I see her again? Will I see all of them again?" Lucy asked him.

"Find Aslan, and I have no doubt that you will see them all soon"

* * *

All day, Edmund had been feeling he was going to be sick at any second.

He looked at the queen, no, the white witch, that he had once thought was an angel, walking away from him looking more like a devil, after freezing an innocent fox.

He remembered the night he had walked through the castle's doors as if it had been years ago. That was how tormented he felt each minute he passed with the witch. The time was slow and torturous.

He and the girl, Enola, had walked through what seemed to be the castle's garden filled with statues. The girl would squeak every time a figure would appear in front of her, while Edmund tried to keep his reactions, but was actually as terrified as her. He saw a big cat, a cheetah, perhaps? And using a wooden stick he played with its sharp teeth.

"Are they...real?" The sweet voice of the scared girl asked him.

"Of course, they are not, you silly" he joked.

He kept walking and En screamed when an intimidating dark wolf jumped over him. He talked to the animal about the woods, the queen and about being a son of Adam. Only then the wolf led them to the throne room, for which they had to walk up hundreds of stairs.

"Wait here" the wolf said before disappearing.

Enola was trying to catch her breath with her hands on her knees while Edmund walked to the throne and sat on it. He wouldn't waste his time just because the sticky girl couldn't catch up with him.

"What are we doing here?" She had asked. But, honestly, he had felt hypnotized by the sudden sense of power that overcame him while he was on the icy throne.

He never answered her because a tall figure appeared followed by the wolf from before.

"Like it?" It was her, the queen, Jadis, Edmund remembered was her name.

She looked just like back at the woods, white, majestic and raising like an angel. He stood up from her throne.

"Uh...Yes, your majesty."

He took a quick glance at the girl, away, down the stairs who didn't seem to have listened the presence of the queen.

"I thought you might..." She said as she took her place on the fur covered royal chair.

But soon, the queen's true colors showed up. She raised from the throne and raised her voice making him back up. He was so nervous, yet he couldn't blame her, could he? She had asked him so little and he couldn't accomplish it because his sibling wouldn't listen.

"I did bring them halfway!" He said "And I didn't come alone!"

He looked over his shoulder and saw the little girl, whose attention was now in the performance that he was giving. He turned at the queen.

"I brought one." Edmund said in a lower voice. The queen saw past him and a shiver traveled through his spine at the expression the queen made when her eyes landed on the young girl. With a quick hand movement, the dwarf that had been with the queen back at the woods walked to Enola and took a harsh hold on her.

"Ouch!" The girl yelled in pain.

"She-she isn't my sister!" Edmund quickly exclaimed at the queen as if, by hearing that, her majesty would give the girl a better trait. "We found her when we arrived!"

"So, you are telling me she is the third daughter of Eve?" The queen's hunger face never disappeared of her face. Edmund gulped. "I'm going to ask this once, Edmund." She said leaning down to him and once again with the sweetest voice, just like she had used with him the first time they met. "Where are your siblings?"

Eventually, he was thrown into a cell. The girl was there, with an ankle cuff too.

"What did you get us into, boy?!"

"It's Edmund" He answered with annoyance and, well, scare.

He was freezing and by the looks of it, so was Enola. She was cuffed but she was standing and moving. It seemed that she was trying to keep the warm by moving. She would ask him questions once in a while like "Was she the witch?", "Are we going to die?".

Eventually she drained out of energy, especially because of hunger. The food they had been given was frozen, the water, the bread...

Edmund had dozed out for a while and when he looked back at the little girl he saw her lying on the floor, trembling, her lips purple. And he felt so bad. He imagined Lucy being there in her place and he couldn't stand it. The girl, Enola, was there, freezing to death, because of him. He saw her open her eyes and smiled at him.

"D-d-don't worry." She said "We-we'll get out of-f he-re s-s-oon. Both of us."

"Why are you so sure?" He asked her.

"B-because...your siblings. Peter...Susan...Lucy. They will b-be looking f-for you."

Edmund felt really awful. If he'd had a jacket or the coat from the wardrobe he would have given it to her, but it seemed that both of them had left them at the beavers' place. He didn't understand why she seemed to be colder than him.

"She's so young" He had thought, maybe that was the reason.

"You're Lucy Pevensie's brother" A voice from the continuous cell called him.

It was Tumnus.

Both male talked for just a pair of minutes. Edmund gave him the bread he couldn't eat, and took a look at how miserable the faun that had once aided his sister looked now.

Soon, the queen arrived and the interrogation began. His siblings were safe, they were long gone from the dam. Where had they gone? The queen started to get impatient and she raised her staff. Would she stab him? Kill him?

"Wait!" He yelled in terror "The beaver said something about Aslan!"

Enola lying a bit far from him, raised from her slumber for all the yelling.

The queen lowered her staff "Aslan?"

"Hey!" Enola called him using her remaining forces. "I don't think you are supposed to say that!"

Sharply, the woman turned to her. "Now she knows En knows something too" Ed thought.

"Where?"

It all ended with Tumnus and Enola being released from her cuffs...by the force of the hammer of the queen's guard. It was quickly but Edmund could tell that it had been painful enough. Each scream of pain Tumnus let out was like a hammer to Edmund himself.

When it was Enola's time, Edmund had been praying the Lord for a bit of mercy. It costed nothing of time from the guard to reach at his side for the keys.

But he, that horrible monstrous creature, used his hammer too.

It was bad enough to hear Tumnus groaning because of Edmund. He perfectly knew the faun's presence in the castle was his fault and the psychological torture Edmund was going through was well deserved ...but to hear the screams of an innocent, 8-year-old girl, whose only wish had been to follow him out of curiosity? That was hell.

He felt that he had died and gone to hell.

Those seconds of her piercing scream of pain reminded him of earlier when they had found her, when Lucy had explained to her about Narnia. The girl had been so excited.

This was not what she had been expecting of a magical land.

Both, the faun and the girl were dragged to the queen's feet.

"Do you know why you are here?" She asked them.

Tumnus pain had dissipated when he heard the girls suffering. He looked enraged at the queen.

On the other hand, Enola was sobbing. Uncontrollably sobbing. Her eyes traveled from Tumnus, to Edmund, to the Queen, to the monstrous guard, and back to Edmund.

"Because I believe in a free Narnia" Tumnus answered with rage.

"You are both here, because he..." Jadis said and pointed at Edmund with her glowing staff "turned you in. "the woman looked at Tumnus "For sweeties" then she turned at Enola "and as a guarantee for a crown."

Hours later, after being totally alone for a long time, Edmund was dragged out of the castle, to the courtyard, where Jadis' sledding was waiting for him. But the beatings and the cursing Jadis' servant had taken upon him were not as painful as the tragic sight he had when he saw at the statues on the garden and, between them, saw the witch's new acquisition.

A faun with a painful expression, raising his right arm, as if asking for a stop to his sorrow. His left arm grasping a fainting body of a little human being. It could have been mistaken by a dwarf, but its dress gave it all away. So, did the curls in her now motionless hair.

Tumnus and Enola.

* * *

They had arrived at Aslan's camp. They had been greeted and welcomed by the Narnians with good heart and excitement. And they were finally in front of the so-called Aslan. Yet, Peter wouldn't feel satisfied until he had his brother and the young Enola back. When Aslan asked about the missing two and he confessed about what had happened he felt...

Shame.

He felt so ashamed. He was in front of Narnia's real king telling him how he had not only lost a kid to the witch, but two. If his mother had known...

He was the worst oldest brother ever.

Truly, Peter had almost lost all of his self-confidence until the talk he had alone with Aslan.

Aslan.

The great lion really was a wonder to the eye. As tall as Peter himself, if not bigger, with his beautiful mane...

Peter and his two sisters had gone through a lot to finally be safe at the camp, and the words of the lion were just what he needed to hear at that moment. Peter was not the only one who was worried about his family. They both wanted the best for their kind, both of them knew the importance of responsibility. And the security Aslan had when he talked about Peter, sitting in Cair Paravel, gave the teenager enough peace inside of him that he was able to arrange his thoughts and words.

"There is..." Peter started after minutes of being in silence by the lion. "something...about the prophecy. I think I've heard it a hundred times by now, but I still don't get..." He paused.

"Please, do ask." The wise voice beside him stated.

"' _And before the third daughter of Eve, in Cair Paravel shall sit, a white stag in the southern mountains traveling to the past will appear'_ " Peter tried his best to quote it as accurate as possible "That, I don't get."

Peter could have sworn he hear Aslan chuckle, but maybe it was only the sound of the trees branches moving with the wind.

"You will understand it... eventually" That was all Aslan said.

Then the horn sounded.

* * *

Did any of you watch Crimson Peak? I inspired En's name on it.


	3. Edmund was safe

3.

Edmund was safe. He had been rescued. Yet he didn't feel safe at all. Especially when he was taken to the greatest lion he had seen in his life. Not that he had many experiences around lions, but...in the zoo.

He knew these... creatures that had saved him were Narnians, they were nothing but kind to them. But what if he was wrong? What if they wanted to feed him to this lion?

"Fear not, for I shall not harm you" After everything he had seen in Narnia Edmund wasn't surprised about the lion talking to him.

"You are Aslan" Edmund said.

"Please, leave us alone." The lion said to his soldiers.

Aslan.

He was in front of Aslan. Alone with Aslan. The true king of Narnia. Edmund felt it in his heart. Just by hearing the lion's voice he could tell it was the wise and experienced voice of true and selfless power.

"I'm so sorry." Edmund said falling to his knees. "I'm so so so sorry" The tears had started falling down his cheeks and he couldn't stop them.

"I do not want to hear your apologies, son of Adam. That is not why I asked my people to leave us alone."

"Are you going to punish me?" Edmund was sobbing. How he hated to cry! He just hoped that no one was around to see him in that state.

"I shall not punish you". The lion's soothing voice made him to rub his cheeks and eyes, cleaning the traces of tears. "Now, stand up." Edmund did and he got surprised when one of the lion's front paws raised and rested on his right shoulder "I want you, Edmund, to confess what you have done and why did you do it."

It was not a question, Edmund noticed, it wasn't even a command. He knew that if he didn't want to, it would be okay not to answer. But he knew that wouldn't be the correct way to redemption. What he had done was wrong. His motives were worse.

And so, he said it all. How he felt, thought, acted, said, saw. All of it.

When he finished, his tears had already dried and there were no more to shed.

Both, lion and kid, had been walking for hours, but unlike when he was with the witch, Edmund appreciated every second that felt longer spent with Aslan.

"I can forgive you, Edmund, but yours and my family's trust you have to earn, the internal pain I cannot take away, the weight of the future consequences your actions may left you will carry. To solve all of that on your own, that will be your penance."

Edmund nodded in silence. He knew he deserved it and he would do whatever it took to overcome whatever he had to face.

"But... what about Enola?" He asked Aslan "And Tumnus?"

Aslan turned to him and looked at him in the eye.

"That will be your penance" Aslan repeated.

Edmund's eyes flooded with tears and he nodded in pain.

"Come here, son." the lion leaned down to him and Edmund couldn't avoid the need of spreading his arms around the lion's head as he cried his eyes out. "Through the power that rests on me as Narnia's ruler, I give you my pardon and absolve you from your actions"

Edmund felt warm filling up his chest as he rested his face in the lion's soft as the breeze mane. Yet his penance, like Aslan had called it, was something he couldn't stop feeling.

* * *

"But they need us" Susan looked at her younger sister with pride "all four of us"

"Lucy, it's too dangerous" Susan then looked at Peter with annoyance. Couldn't they all have a tranquil breakfast for once? "You almost drowned! Edmund was almost killed!"

Susan hated to admit it, but Peter war right. Narnia was no safe place at those times. Peter and she could have stayed but the journey back to the lamp-post was days away and none of the oldest siblings would be calm if the other wasn't accompanying their youngest siblings back home.

"Which is why we have to stay..." Edmund said lowering his head "I've seen what the White Witch can do..." There it was again that mysterious tone Ed had whenever he mentioned his time with the witch. It killed Susan not knowing about it." and I've helped her do it. We can't live these people behind to suffer for it."

God, his brother looked miserable, and the four kids in the table knew the reason.

Nothing of her had been mentioned since Edmund's return. Aslan had asked them specifically not to ask him about his journey. Yet, the absence of the little girl was felt whenever the fourth of them were together. Susan had talked to Peter about it and she knew that for him it wasn't like Peter would just not mention it ever again. It was more like Peter wanted to make justice in her name. That was his personal motivation to stay and fight for Narnia. He felt responsible of what had been of the girl. Susan knew that Aslan had told Peter what had happened with the girl, he was the only one besides Edmund who knew.

She wished she knew what had happened. Was the girl even alive? Could she be rescued? It didn't matter for Susan if the girl was in the most secured cell of the witch's castle, Susan would make a rescue party if it was necessary...but she was in the shadows. She knew nothing. But with a glance at Edmund she could only think the worse.

Lucy took Edmund's hand.

"I suppose that's it then" Susan said and stood up from the table.

"Where are you going?" Peter called her as she grabbed her weapons.

"To get in some practice."

* * *

Lucy had never seen the White Witch before. Lucy got scared when she saw did. Her skin gleamed white like ice, her lips red like blood, eyes so black like the night. Lucy was scared, even more when the woman commanded her brother's blood.

Fortunately, Aslan could never lose. Could he? He had led the witch away. Still her face was so unnerving, and Aslan's so defeated after they both walked out of the tent. Lucy was worried.

At night, Lucy realized she'd experienced a lot of emotions in one day: joy, sadness, terror, worry, that she couldn't sleep. It allowed her to notice when Aslan walked into the woods alone, though. Lucy had dragged Susan behind her. Of course, Aslan noticed their presence and accepted their company...for a while.

"Thank you, Susan. Thank you, Lucy" he had said to them "and farewell".

But they wouldn't leave so easily. They hide behind the bushes, the trees protecting them from the view.

The witch's army and the witch herself were reunited in Aslan's table. Their lion was being abused by the horrible dark creatures.

"Why isn't he fighting back." Lucy asked.

Susan turned around, she couldn't see anymore. Lucy, turned her gaze at the witch and remembered how she had looked in the daylight. What scared Lucy the most of the view was how beautiful the woman looked, dressed in black. It made it look all so much dangerous for their friend laying on the table. When the witch started speaking up for all their followers to listen, Lucy knew that the image would haunt her forever. The witch looked like a demon, with her whiteish skin and black, black eyes.

Lucy couldn't look at her anymore, her eyes going to Aslan. In his not only she saw his own pain, but En's, Tumnus', and every single Narnian that had fallen under the witch's clutches,

"...DIE!" She heard hugged at Susan and began to cry "THE GREAT CAT IS DEAD!"

* * *

Susan took slow steps after jumping down Aslan's back.

"He must have known what he was doing" Susan had said to Lucy earlier, that day, as the both of them were crying over Aslan's body.

He knew what he was doing, Susan confirmed when he came back to life. He was innocent, and the witch wanted power, never justice. Of course, he couldn't die by a selfless and pure action.

They had to help the troops who were already in the middle of the war.

Lucy and Susan herself didn't really know where they were heading as they sat on Aslan's back, but they blindly trusted him. Susan wasn't really surprised when she saw the witch's castle in the horizon, but once in the courtyard she felt the necessity to be careful in her steps. Who knew what could jump at them in the devil's house?

Soon, she found herself surrounded, but not by breathing people, they were all statues. The atmosphere was so sad and tense. All the Narnians who had rebelled up-front against the queen were there, and there was nothing they could do...

Lucy had started running when she saw the statues, stopping at each faun she found and Susan followed her. Finally, they came to a stop.

Susan saw it too, but it wasn't the faun what had really captured her attention in the statue. Lucy noticed it too and soon started crying. Susan put an arm around her. She thought that if it wasn't for the little body lying lifeless-like on the left arm of the faun she, Susan, wouldn't have started to crying so helplessly.

Now she knew what had happened to Enola. And her heart was just shattered into pieces. Such a young and happy girl, ending like this... She cursed the day she had wished to know what had happened to the little one.

Susan and Lucy's cries called the attention of Aslan.

He didn't say a word. The lion simply walked to the statue and blew at it.

Susan opened her mouth astonished, when the motionless hairs of both the faun and the young girl in the statue moved with the wind.

A cracking sound was heard and slowly Tumnus' face started to gain color. Life.

Tumnus groaned as his body started to unfreeze, just like the limp body of Enola sustained by his arm. He gasped and before he could fall to the ground with the girl, both Lucy and Susan took them in arms, respectively.

Susan on the floor, with young Enola resting baby-like on her lap, took a lock of hair out of the girl's face.

Susan's lower lip quivered when she heard Lucy and Tumnus. He was alright. Why wasn't Enola alright?

"L-Lucy!" She exclaimed "Aslan!"

Susan put a hand on En's cheek. She was frozen. Susan started to tremble when she looked at the girl's skirt dirty. Slowly, she raised it and saw her leg.

"Oh, God!" Susan cried "Lucy, your cordial!"

"I'm afraid that will only wake her up." Aslan's voice said "Ease the pain for a while. She's okay Susan. Calm down."

Susan's nod looked more like a shake.

"Lucy!" She repeated.

The girl in question was in a millisecond next to her dropping a pair of drops on En's lips.

Enola's cheeks slowly started to fill with blood. The paleness disappeared and just like waking up from a dream her eyelashes started to flutter.

"Why is everyone looking at me?" Enola asked with her eyes wide-open.

Then and only then, Susan started to laugh in joy.

* * *

So, I've heard that C.S. Lewis was religious and that basically Narnia is based in christianism, so, in Edmund's scene with Aslan I tried to put something of it in it.


	4. Edmund had been stabbed

4.

Edmund had been stabbed. He had been stabbed, but he had saved Peter and he had destroyed that awful staff that gave him nightmares every night. The same staff that had frozen Tumnus and Enola forever.

He heard a roar in the distance. Maybe he would die. It hurted, his head throbbed too hard in pain that it was as if it would be his real cause of death.

Then the breathing. He couldn't breathe. Maybe it would be his way to redeem himself. By dying.

He heard his name, and a scream of pain. Then the blurry faces of his family appeared in front of his eyes.

Had the hour of death arrived?

He closed his eyes; he was done for.

Then he felt it, fire in his lips, in his tongue, down his throat and life in every vein and artery of his body.

He opened his eyes and there they were again, his siblings staring down at him. Peter hugged him. Edmund could tell that his brother didn't really care if he was still hurting, he was happy to see his young brother alive.

"When are you gonna learn to do as you're told?" Peter joked between tears. Then Lucy, hugged him, then Susan. At the end, they were all hugging.

They got separated when they heard the paws of Aslan nearing them. The lion stopped and sat down. His mane was so majestically large that it had covered the presence of a young girl on his back. She was carrying a crutch in her right side.

Susan and Lucy smiled knowingly, while Peter and Edmund were stunned.

The girl took her time to climb down Aslan's back and arrange her crutch. Well, mini-crutch.

"Don't worry, Aslan" Enola who had just met the great king of Narnia a few hours before, and already seemed so comfortable around him. She reached his left arm to the lion's mane and gave him a quick kiss on his nose "I'll figure out how to use this crutch... "she said as it fell to the grass "Eventually"

And then she jumped her way to the Pevensies using only his left leg, muffling her groans each time her right leg hurted.

"En!" Edmund exclaimed as the girl approached them and sat with the Pevensies around him. "When...? How...?"

Enola smiled at him and turned around just at the same moment Aslan was unfreezing a Narnian soldier with his breath. The view answered Peter and Edmund's questions.

"En, I'm so sorry! I..." Edmund grabbed the little kid's hands.

"Don't worry, Edmund." En smiled and giggled. Then she talked to herself out loud "I've said 'don't worry' more times since I woke up than I've said my whole life" En turned her eyes at Peter "Though I don't really understand his methods, your brother's survival skills are great! And he's brave. Yes, really!" She shrugged "I was scared the whole time we were at the castle and he was, just there, facing the witch. Talking at her face. I couldn't..."

"No, Enola. Listen up..." Edmund commanded "you probably don't understand the whole picture right now." Somewhere down the road Enola had gotten her hands out of Edmund's hold but he took them again. "You are young"

At this, En wanted to argue, but Edmund didn't let her.

"But just as I've sworn that I'll never doubt Lucy again, I swear that I'll spend the rest of my life making up for what I did to you..."

Edmund knew he was right, he saw it in Peter and Susan's faces when they heard Enola's perspective of everything that had happened. She was young, she couldn't comprehend the real magnitude of Edmund's actions. But Edmund could and he would fulfill his promises.

"I'll always protect and take care of you" Edmund promised and right there he saw a little twinkle in Enola's eyes.

"Okay" The girl responded with a smile showing all of her teeth.

He reached for her, hugging her. And so, did the other Pevensies.

"So, will I" Edmund heard Peter.

"And I" Susan said.

"And if you ever get hurt again, I'll use my cordial in you, En." Lucy joked.

* * *

Days later, the coronation took place.

Enola walked down the aisle behind the beavers, next to Tumnus, wearing the most beautiful dress that she had ever used. Sadly, she still had to use the annoying crutch, which she thought ruined her looks. She had finally understood how to use it, but she didn't like how weird it made her walk. Still, "Orders of the healer" Susan would have said to her.

En looked up at her friends, they all looked beautiful. They really looked like royalty.

"Why can't I be a queen too?" She had asked Aslan a day before, pouting.

"Because you are too little. You need to grow, to learn. Become a ruler at heart and you'll be a ruler in life" He had answered her.

That had motivated her. She would become brave as Lucy and intelligent as Susan, then she too, would be a queen. Meanwhile, Aslan had given her the title of First Royal Lady of Narnia.

"First young Royal Lady of Narnia" Peter had joked.

En's mind returned to the coronation just in time to see Tumnus put a flower tiara in Lucy's head. She wanted a tiara, too! It looked so beautiful on Lucy, with its silver flowers. If Susan's was golden, and Lucy's was silver, could she get a bronze one? What about an all sapphire made one? Even with a metal one she would be ha...

"Enola?" Aslan's sweet voice called her. He had just announced Edmund and she was the one who would deliver the silver crown.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" She excused herself mischievously and walked to Edmund.

He had to lower himself so she could put the crown on him.

"So slow" Edmund joked with her and she stuck her tongue out playfully.

Then she went to Susan for she would deliver her golden tiara. Susan too, lowered herself and after she raised she wiggled her eyebrows funnily at En. The young girl smiled.

En's favorite part of the coronation was the feast. It had been a long time since she had eaten cake and cookies. They were delicious.

"En! Your manners!" Susan approached her looking scandalized.

"Sorry" En said before chucking one last cookie. Susan gave her "the face". The "I'm reprimanding you about something you are doing and you keep doing it!". "That was the last time, I swear!" En said, while crossing her fingers behind her.

Susan smiled and rolled her eyes.

"It's late. You should go to bed."

"Why isn't Lucy going to bed? She's young, too!"

"En..." Susan complained.

"Besides it's coronation day. Don't I get a special treatment because of it?"

Enola didn't know that Susan was having the time of her life with her. Her siblings had never really looked up at her like a mother, not even Lucy being the youngest. But Enola... she was like a living doll that she could dress up. Of course, using her like a doll was not the only reason why Susan was always around her. Susan really liked her. It was probably a maternal instinct inside of her.

"Su," Edmund came to them and Enola started "boo"ing him. "I'll take care of it."

"And here comes the worst king of Narnia. Edmund, the Slow!" En cheered.

"Shut up." Edmund joked, squatting in front of the kid.

En handed him her crutch and put her arms around his neck. Susan saw them as they disappeared from the ball room, Enola on his brother's back.

"They are getting along" Susan hadn't noticed Peter walking to her.

"She's a kid" Susan said to Peter "I really think she doesn't understand what happened."

"I hope it won't affect their friendship when she does"

Susan smiled.

"I don't think it will." She said before going to find a dance partner.

Meanwhile, Edmund was walking up the stairs of the castle.

"So, Edmund," Enola said on her back "when I am queen of Narnia, can my tiara be made of jade?"

"I don't think they have an arsenal of jade in Narnia but sure, why not?"

"What if they don't have one?" She asked with worry.

"Then I'll travel around until I find jade enough for your crown."

"Mmm. What about ruby? Susan says I look better in red." She said looking at everything around her. The castle was stunning.

"Then, ruby it will be" Edmund smiled as they arrived at her chambers.

"Jade or ruby. Jade or ruby..." he heard her whispering at herself as he softly placed her on her bed. He pulled out the sheets to cover her. "Oh! My grandmother had an ancient locket and it had an opal stone," Edmund saw her unconsciously reaching for the raggedy doll that Lucy had given to her the first night after the battle. "it shined in several colors. Mother never saw it but I bet she would have loved it." En sighted "Mother..."

She didn't look sad when she said it, which raised up curiosity in Edmund.

"Do you miss them? You parents, I mean" He took a seat in the bed careful not to hurt her leg, a constant reminder of how much he owed the girl.

"Yes, of course. Don't you miss yours?" En asked back as if it was even ridiculous to ask. Edmund nodded. "I miss my father the most." Enola leaned to him "He went to the war, you see."

A nostalgic smile appeared in Edmund's face.

"Mine, too." He started "Mother wanted to keep us safe so..."

And so, he spent the following minutes telling her about the Pevensies' story. How they had ended up in Narnia. Enola was a great listener, she loved stories, back at her house it was his father the one who would tuck her in bed and tell her a good bedtime story every night.

"You see," It was now her turn to tell her story. "mother's British and Dad's American. My mother's family never really liked dad because of it, even though they came to America to live when the war started." Enola sighted and shrugged "But the war got worse and Dad had to leave. So, mother and I ended up alone in New York City."

"It must have been hard, for your mom, I mean" Edmund put his left leg up on the bed and rested his chin on his knee. "Peter wasn't that old, but I think that having a male presence in the house was comforting for my mom."

"Yes, it was hard. Eventually it drove mother crazy, literally crazy." En hugged her doll. "She studied nursing in England, before getting married and moving to America. So, when pamphlets of women volunteers started to fill the streets of New York she took me to my grandmother." Edmund's heart stopped for a minute. "And she left." She paused. "She said she would come home with Dad, but a year passed before I arrived at Narnia and there was still no sight of them."

Edmund didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry" he murmured.

"Don't be!" Enola giggled, moving her hand around. "Mother wanted me to become a lady!" Enola faked a shiver and Edmund tried to smile.

They stayed in silence for a moment, then Edmund stood up. He was losing his coronation party and he had forgotten!

"I should be going" He informed En.

"Okay" Enola nodded energetically and smiled at him, just as she always did, showing all of her teeth.

"Good" Edmund said before going to the door and opening it. "Wait." He turned around "Does your leg hurt?"

It didn't. Not really. But Enola didn't want to go to sleep yet. Saying "no" would make Edmund say good night and leave her alone. Saying "yes"...

"Actually, it does." En grimaced "It hurts so bad"

The color drained out of Edmund's cheeks.

"What do you need? Should I call the healer? Or, or Susan? Maybe, I could bring some medicine..."

"Can't you just stay here until I fall asleep?" En responded "if I keep talking the pain goes away."

And, that night, and almost every night after that, for almost 15 years Edmund fell asleep on the couch by Enola's bed.

* * *

And so, the real story begins. I'm so excited for you to read it. I really hope you enjoy spending time with my OCs as much as I did.


	5. The Pevensies had grown up together

5.

The Pevensies had grown up together in Narnia, the five of them. The Pevensie last name had been forgotten with the time but all Narnia new that even though four royals ruled Narnia, the royal family actually had 5 members. And all of Narnia was constantly waiting for the day, Aslan would come back to announce the last coronation.

"When do you think Aslan's coming back?" A 10-year-old Enola had asked 12-year-old Lucy.

"I'm not sure. Why?" They were both in a pair of swings Peter had asked a Narnian's carpenter to make for the girls.

"Because I'm now the same age you were when you became queen of Narnia,"

"But Susan was 16. Maybe you'll be a late bloomer like her."

Enola had groaned.

* * *

A year later Enola had been in the same spot swinging up and down, but her companion was Edmund. He was too on the swings, even though he was still skinny, he was so much taller than his 13-year-old self. 11-year-old Enola and 16-year-old Edmund had to visit the swings when Lucy was practicing horse-riding. Otherwise Edmund would be kicked out by his little sister.

"You're gonna break my swing one of these days, Edmund, you are so big!" Lucy would yell at him.

"Hey, Eddie." En wasn't really swinging. She looked a little down. "Do you think that I'll ever be queen?"

"Of course, why do you ask?" He asked her.

"I don't know..." She murmured "So, you are leaving tomorrow..."

"Oh, yes. You know, diplomatic stuff Peter wants me to accompany him to." Edmund shrugged.

"Why can't we go? Lucy and me and Susan?" She pouted.

"Because, young lady," He joked "you are too young, and so is my sister. And someone has to take care of both of you, specially you with all the pranks you make around the castle. So, Susan wanted to stay."

En groaned.

"You know what? I'm leaving before you try to convince me to take you with us, which is never going to happen."

En had been faking death on her swing but when she heard that she straightened up.

"You are coming tonight, right?" She asked him about talking to her until she could fall asleep to avoid the "pain" in her leg.

"Yeah, sure" he said after ruffling her hair and walking away.

En arranged her hair with an annoyed face and kept swinging, until Lucy arrived.

* * *

Two years later, Enola was in the same spot. Strangely, the sky was grey, but En liked it because it matched her mood. She wasn't swinging, only sitting.

Peter was the one who took a sit beside her that day.

"Wow, I hope Lucy doesn't see you there. She'll murder you, you know." She joked "You're like the greatest creature of Narnia."

"Are you calling me fat?" 22-year-old Peter joked back.

"You are calling yourself fat. When I said great I was leaning for a strong kind of great. Anyways, you'll destroy your sister's swing."

"I can just ask for a new one for her."

"High King Peter, it's not so kind of you to brag about your title" En giggled.

Peter smiled. Being a King and all, he didn't have enough time for his family, except in breakfast (which En usually missed because she would wake up late) and diner time. That day he'd had the day off and it felt so good to take a break after being a King full time every day. He loved those free days because he could talk to Susan who barely had time for him because she was always busy trying to make Enola a lady or with one of her dozens of suitors, who never seemed to stop arriving. He could practice with Edmund, who had become the right hand of the king, even though he was just 18 years old. He could visit his closest Narnian friends with Lucy, like the beavers' dam or Tumnus' house. Or he could play around with the youngest of them all, Enola.

The girl seriously didn't seem to run out of batteries. She was always playing pranks on everyone, even the High King himself. He would never admit it to his siblings but his favorite part of his resting days was the time he spent with En.

That day was different, though. She was in her usual spot, but she looked different. Sad? She was joking as usual, but that was something she did even when she was feeling iffy. A stranger person would've thought she was normal. But he was her brother, he knew something wasn't really okay.

"Okay. What's happening?" Peter rested his elbows on his knees.

"What? Nothing's happening. Why would there be something happening?" She stuttered looking away.

Peter smiled and she sighted, knowing when she was defeated.

"You're all leaving. All of you leaving. You, Susan, Edmund," Her face fell. "even Lucy; you're living me alone in the castle."

"You are too young" Peter told her as if talking to a 5-year-old.

"That's what you always say! It's not fair." She crossed her arms.

"It's just one night." He stated "Probably you won't even notice..."

"One night in Archenland, but you don't just appear there, you have to travel." She frowned feeling a knot in her stomach." It will take you a whole day just to get there..." Peter was about to argue, but En continued: "and why can Lucy go and I can't? She's not 16 yet!"

"But she'll be next week." Peter explained "we'll just announce her in Archenland's society a week earlier. Aren't you happy for her?"

En tsked and put her arms down smiling.

"Actually, I'm happy for her. I just..." She shrugged "wish I could be there. I'm her best friend."

Peter put a hand on her shoulder.

"I know, kid." He said before standing up. "And, just so you know, I would never leave you alone in the castle" Enola was already smiling and he hadn't even finished. "I sent for the beavers, they'll arrive in the morning"

"Yes!" She made a victory sign at the sky "I love when the beavers come here!"

Peter ruffled her hair and she smiled wholeheartedly.

* * *

A year later, Lucy and En where sitting in their usual spots, the swings. The sun was going down and it was warm. A perfect day, En would say. But it was not a perfect day. At all.

"...and then she appeared out of nowhere and took Edmund's arm and dragged him to the center of the floor."

Lucy's first year in society had not just opened her eyes to the world of courting, but also Enola's.

"Seriously, south Archenland's girls? The worst." Lucy's nose wrinkled in distaste. "I really don't understand what they all see in Ed. In Peter, I get it, he's a gentleman and he's High King of Narnia. But Ed? You know Ed more than anyone else..."

And yeah, 14-year-old Enola knew Edmund like no one else. Well, maybe Peter knew him the most, but then it was her.

"I don't mean to be rude, but Ed's not the best gentleman." A 16-year-old Lucy looked at her as if waiting for her approval and Enola could only fake a smile. "He's too distracted, like he's always in his own world. But, Aslan! He likes to flirt..."

En's smile faded. "Really?" Her mouth twitched.

"Why do you think they are all after him? He knows how to talk to women" Lucy nodded knowingly.

"Well, I- I wouldn't know..." En stuttered.

"Of course, you wouldn't. You're his sister." Lucy said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world "But anyways, there I was in my greenish blue dress. Do you remember? The one with the golden..."

But Enola had stopped listened. She would nod at Lucy a few times and would answer her with "Yes", "Of course" and fake a laugh here and there but her mind was somewhere else.

She had always been grateful by the unspoken adoption of the royals with her, that she had forgotten what it could meant to her feeling for King Edmund. She'd had a crush on the young king for as long as she could remember. Later she would understand that it was a childish crush, but a crush nonetheless.

It would be weird if Eddie thought of her as a sister, right? She would never be able to marry him then!

That night she was at the bottom of the stairs that would lead her to her chambers but, Aslan! She was so tired of the practice that she didn't believe she could make it to the top. She felt a hand on her hair, ruffling it, and she grimaced as soon as she saw who it was.

"I've told you not to do that. It is not funny!" She exclaimed.

"Sorry, your highness" Ed joked with sarcasm. "You're going to bed?" A 19-year-old Edmund asked her.

"Yes, but I'm so tired!" She groaned "I think I'll just sleep here on the stairs.

"Ha ha, so funny" He said before squatting down "climb up, Edmund's express is about to leave."

"You-are-my hero" She said emphasizing each word before jumping on Edmund back.

"Wow, you are a lot heavier than I remembered"

"You carried me on your back like a week ago, be quiet." She rolled her eyes.

"It seems someone's been eating a lot this last week." He tried to make her mad.

"To be honest, yes. I've been eating a lot and it seems that I'll be eating so much more until I'm sixteen, because every time you leave to Archenland I stay with the beavers and they bake delicious chocolate chip cookies. So, thanks Ed! Really, you do know how to talk to a woman."

They had arrived at her chambers and he literally drop her on her bed, making her giggle. He turned around his eyes widened.

"Actually, I do. But apparently I also know how to talk to little girls" he joked

But it didn't give him the response he wanted.

"Ouh" She said "Smooth, Edmund. Really smooth." He had touched a fiber in her that wasn't exactly the best to touch.

For Susan it was obvious that En had an "age complex". She had talked about Peter about it, it seemed like the youngest member of her family felt the need to grow at a faster pace only so she could be at their level. Peter had noticed it too, from a long time ago. It had been pretty obvious when En had 10 years old and Peter 19, suddenly she too wanted to be a 19-year-old. And now, with all the balls she was missing...

And Edmund had touched it, that fiber of her "age complex".

She covered herself totally on the bed and turned around. Edmund laughed thinking maybe she was playing around making him think she was angry.

"En?" He poked at her. "En?" He did it again "En are you mad?"

"Just go." Her muffled voice was heard.

Edmund stood up.

"Oh, okay." His forehead furrowed. He couldn't remember the last time En had been mad at her, so now that she was he didn't know what to do.

Then he heard them. Pillow-muffled sobs.

His lashes fluttered, as he walked backwards. Was she crying?

"Sorry" He said before going out of her bedroom.

As soon as the door was closed, he ran to Susan's workroom. Once he explained her what had happened, Susan went to En's chambers.

The next morning, Susan understood the sudden mood swings of her little sister. Enola had just taken a new step towards womanhood.

* * *

Two years later Enola, Susan and Lucy were getting ready for 16-year-old En's debut in Archenland's society. King Lune so kindly had granted them with an enormous room where the three of them could spend the night and, of course, get ready for the ball.

"This king seems to love throwing balls. Lucky me..." En said nervously while a 23-year-old Susan finished with her corset.

"For Aslan's mane, En! I'm so excited for you." An 18-year-old Lucy was looking back at her through the mirror in front of En. Lucy had finally passed the stage after debut in which the ladies seem to be at their most superficial point of their lives and in which they only talk about dresses and dances and boys. Now, she was back at the real Lucy, the one who loved exploring Narnia, traveling on horse with En, solving little problems in their reign here and there and meeting with her best friends like Mr. Tumnus.

And Lucy, looking at Enola through the mirror could've bet that her friend would be an exception for that stage. Enola could never change. Right then, for example, she had two golden sticks that later Susan would use on her hairstyle and was using them as long teeth while making weird faces on the mirror at herself.

Lucy's lip quivered trying to hold the burst of laughter, while Susan's jaw dropped and quickly took the sticks out of En's mouth.

"Please, promise me you'll behave!" Su begged En holding both of her shoulders and resting her head on one of the young lady's shoulders.

"I'll try..." En tried to make it sound cheerful but it made Su worry even more. En was actually thinking how it looked like her body had to heads on the mirror.

Hours later, Susan and Lucy left her alone in the room. Susan had left in a pink dress, which En knew didn't suit her older sister at all, and her hair was up using the golden sticks. Susan didn't want to shine for once, the night had to be Enola's.

"She did the same thing during my debut, but it was worse" Lucy had whispered Enola earlier.

Lucy, on the other hand, had walked out in a boned colored dress. Beautiful. If someone had asked Enola which dress she wanted, she would have asked for Lucy's. It was simple yet beautiful.

En's was so... crazy. It was the most beautiful dress she had ever seen or wore. She looked at herself in the mirror and almost didn't recognize herself. But it was heavy and it was uncovered in the back.

She looked like a queen. Like and uncomfortable and out of place queen. She stopped admiring at herself when someone knocked at her door.

"It's Peter, En" the voice said.

He would walk her into the ballroom, just like he had done with Lucy. He was the head of the royal family, after all.

En opened the door with a sight. She was so nervous that she was bouncing. The bouncing was what helped Peter to realize the lady in front of him was his young Enola.


	6. It's starting, it's starting!

6.

"It's starting, it's starting! Shh!" Lucy said to her siblings when King Lune asked for everybody's attention.

"You're the one talking." Edmund commented winning another "Shh" from both Lucy and Susan.

"I am pleased to receive all of you today, since we're celebrating not only political matters but also the presentation in our society of the youngest member from our neighbor kingdom's royal family." King Lune made a gesture asking for everyone to stand up. "I present you, on her 16th anniversary, Lady Enola from the royal Narnian family"

Everybody started clapping just when High King Peter walked into the ballroom. Next to him, there was the prettiest woman Edmund had ever seen in his life; the red dress that fell through her body like a scarlet waterfall and the long and thick brown curls that surrounded her face gave her an intoxicating aesthetic of a rose.

"Where is En?" Edmund asked Lucy, his eyes narrowed.

"Are you kidding, Ed? That's her." She answered

When everyone in the ballroom went back to their own business. Peter and the girl, who Lucy had declared as their En, walked to their family.

Just as they were arriving the woman let go of Peter's arm and there it was...the slight limp. The limping that tormented Ed every time he saw her walking. Edmund's brows drew together when he noticed that he wasn't the only one who had noticed the limp of the girl, in the room. Of course, all the eyes would be on her all night. Of course, they would all notice and stare and whisper… and it was no one else's fault but his.

"Hello again" She said to Lucy and Susan and then her eyes turned to Edmund. "Hey, Eddie. How do I look?" She beamed.

But Edmund looked far behind her and saw a pair of ladies gossiping, he looked to his left and there were another couple talking in whispers, to his right and there were three... Edmund looked at En in the eye and forced a smile. "Good" he said before walking out of the ballroom for the rest of the night.

* * *

Two years later, En was still being dragged to the balls in Archenland. She wasn't a fool, she knew how in Archenland people had started calling her "The Withered Narnian Rose" right after her debut. Still, she had wanted to keep going with her sisters, but when the moon shined the brightest on the sky they would be dancing in the floor while En would stay sitting all night on their table. She kept going because, as her childish crush for Edmund disappeared (especially because said man had kept his distances the last two years) she hoped that maybe one day a man wouldn't mind about her state. It had never bothered her, why did it bother others?

The last night she went to a ball by her own decision she was on the ballroom's balcony. A few meters from her there was an old man and an old lady.

"…could be the fairest of the three Narnian roses," She heard the man "whispering" "but... such a shame. No royal title and... the limping." They were talking about her. "The Withered Narnian Rose, they called her"

"They".

"They" who? She felt so ashamed and so enraged. For all she cared "They" could freeze up.

Then, Susan would make her assist the balls, but she stopped obliging Enola when said girl started to take a like for wine. En would only drink wine when she was forced to assist to a ball, so Susan never forced her again. If Susan really wanted to have a ball with all of her family in it, it had to be in their own castle. Only Narnian's balls Enola liked, for all their guests their friends were.

Lucy had been right. En had not gone through the post debut stage, but she had gone through her own shell stage. And it lasted for another year.

* * *

A 19-year-old Enola and a 21-year-old Lucy where horse riding back to the castle after a 3 day stay at the beavers' house. A conflict between the fauns and the dwarves of the zone had been resolved by both girls. It had been a delicate problem specially because the dwarves were feeling abused and couldn't ask for help to their majesties because they had been loyal to the White Witch's memory and had never pledged alliance to Narnia's real royal family.

When En and Lu arrived at Cair Paravel both types of creatures where at peace and the dwarves of that zone had declared themselves as Aslan's followers.

En was herself once again. The real Enola, the prankster, never the lady Enola. She entered the great doors bouncing with Lucy behind her.

"Oreius said they were all reunited for tea in the garden. Shall we?" Lucy asked her.

En took a look at herself and at Lu, they were covered in mud and dirt.

"Susan's going to love this" En clapped. "I bet I can win you at running..."

But, of course, Lu was the first one to arrive at the garden.

"...not fair!" En exclaimed. "You're supposed to feel pity for my walking and let me win!" She joked just as she saw all of her siblings on the garden table. The atmosphere was tense. "Hey, where is Lucy?"

"Here!"

En gave a jumped and turned around.

"There you are"

"And, I did, let you win" Lucy joked.

Both of them took a seat in the table.

"What's going on?" En asked.

"What's going on?" Susan repeated harshly "First, you two arrive a day late, second, you arrive a day late and looking like this and third, our brother wants to sell Edmund out!" Susan kept raising her voice until she ended up yelling. With a bump of her fists at the table in front of her, Susan stood up and walked away.

"Sell out?" Lucy asked "What's she talking about Peter?"

"She's talking about me getting married..." Edmund started.

"What?" Both girls on the table shrieked.

"To someone from Calormen." He finished.

"Double what?" Enola asked this time alone. She stood up and leaned on the table towards Peter, she almost was laying on it, actually.

"You're kidding, right?" She then turned to Edmund, "He's kidding, right?" She went back to Peter "Please, tell me you are kidding?!"

That same night, after a hot shower, Enola was laying on her bed. Edmund, back to their old habits after three years of not doing it, was laying on the couch of En's bedroom.

"Calormen? Really?" She kept asking.

"Politics are not going so well with them. They've never gone well actually..."

"Then we can keep pretending that we don't care about our northern neighbors. We don't have to be friends, we could just keep ignoring each other!" She complained unconsciously reaching for the raggedy doll by her bed. Edmund couldn't remember the last time he had seen her reaching for the doll. Of course, he didn't know that the last three years he hadn't slept on the couch she had been reaching for the doll every night.

"There is a threat of war, En"

Only then she closed her mouth...for a few seconds.

"But, seriously, Calormen?" She whined.

"I thought, you didn't like Archenland better"

"I don't. I would be complaining the same way if the woman you were marrying belonged to Archenland" She shrugged.

Edmund laughed and shook his head. Always the same En. How he had missed her.

"It's not like it's going to be tomorrow, you know?" He said.

"What about in 39 years?" She demanded.

Ed smiled and shook his head.

"Maybe in 2 or 3 years" He sighted, standing up.

"A-are you leaving?" She stuttered.

He turned around to see her illuminated by the candlelight.

"We are not children anymore, En" He said before leaning down and giving her a kiss in her forehead. "Good night" He murmured before walking out of the room.

If Enola was sure about something it was about how Edmund had never given her a kiss, not even in her back of her hand as a greeting. Never. Up until that night.

* * *

A year later, Susan couldn't believe how her youngest sister hadn't matured yet.

"You can't go around turning Edmund's fiancé's skirt on fire, En!" Susan scolded her. "You are 20 years old! When will you become a lady?!"

Enola was inside her bathtub taking a bubble bath and pretending not to hear Susan.

"Sorry, mom." That's what En said every time Susan brought up the "become a lady" idea.

"Please, En. I don't like her any more than you do, but, try...for Narnia. Please!" Susan begged.

En turned around and leaned her head over the edge of the tub.

"Why?" She asked with venom in her voice, yet avoiding Susan's eyes "What has Narnia ever done for me? What has Aslan ever done for me?"

"Enola!" Susan yelled at her.

Susan had never yelled at her and En quickly regret her words.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled. "It's just...it's hard..." she rested her head on her arm.

En was thinking about the blurry memories she had of her childhood. She remembered Narnia, but what about before Narnia? She had not been born in Narnia. The...Pevensies were not her family, not really. Who were her parents? She could only remember words and things and faces, but she couldn't connect them.

Ah Merry K, a box with music and images, Noo Yor Kuh, a metal creature and how she loved to climb on it...

Yet, Susan's words unraveled her.

"You are in love with Edmund…" She said.

En opened and closed her mouth several times but not a sound came out of it.

"I know" Susan insisted.

"I'm not." En said "I mean, I was, when I was a kid." Susan gave her the look. "Okay, until my 17's? Anyways, it was a child crush." En waved her hand "I'm over it."

Susan shook her head in sadness.

"Enola, you're still a child, dear." She said before walking out of the room.


	7. Two years later Enola came back

7.

Two years later Enola came back from her longest travel so far.

It had taken her a year and a half to return to Cair Paravel. She had traveled the world, gained experience. Susan had been right, up until her 20's she had been so childish and irresponsible... She had kept in touch with the royals through letters: hers always arrived, theirs most of the time got lost in the way.

After half a year away, Lucy had joined her and they traveled together for a year more. That is until letters arrived, saying that Narnia and Archenland were in danger. The reason was Calormen, more specifically a certain prince Rabadash, who wanted to marry Susan at all costs. Unfortunately, Peter was away in the war with the giants of the North. In her letter, Susan said that it was all falling on Edmund's shoulders and he would leave with their troops to Archenland.

Of course, Enola would come back.

But Lucy and Enola arrived a bit late. When they came back Narnia was once again in peace.

Both women walked up to Susan's workroom. The three sisters hugged. Susan started explaining everything that had happened to her with Rabadash around her. She ended her story saying how glad she was to had them back.

"Where is Edmund?" Enola had wanted to ask as soon as she had seen Susan, but she had contained herself.

"Good idea! I want to see him too." Lucy exclaimed.

"He's in the gardens, but Lu, I'd really appreciate it if you help me first with some duties..."

Susan said pushing Lucy towards her bookshelf. When the girl was distracted enough, Susan gave Enola a head gesture. En understood and walk out of the room and towards the garden.

Yes, Enola had matured. She had seen sickness, death, war, evil in the world. But it didn't mean that she had changed her true cheerful essence and nature. She jumped all her way around the garden, since it was so large and the columns made it look like a maze.

But there he was, kneeling by the roses. In his hand a withered dead rose laid.

"Eddie" She called him.

"En?" He said turning around.

"I'm back." She said raising a hand and waving at him.

In just a second he stood up and embraced her. He looked at her and leaned down to kiss her temple.

Being away from home, putting all her thoughts in perspective had made Enola realize one thing:

Dear Aslan, she was so in love with Edmund. She couldn't remember a day she hadn't loved him.

* * *

It took her a few months to finally admit it.

She knew their kingdom was the most important thing, so Enola had to wait for the waters to calm down.

Peter returned sound and safe from the war against the giants. They were all reunited again. And then the routine of years ago resurfaced: Peter would be busy all day, Edmund would be with him most of the day, but he would also practice with his sword (he was the best swordsman in Narnia after all), and he would still have time to spend with En at the swings during Lucy's practice, Susan would be on her workroom most of the day, she would go out only for taking a ride on her horse, to check up her roses from the garden and (in En's head) to bother and complain to others about any little detail she didn't like in Cair Paravel. En, would practice and practice and practice, make Susan get mad when she was late for her lessons, spend some time with Lucy in the swings and then with Ed after she left. Then they would both go to dinner and Ed would help her go up the stairs where he would crash in the couch of En's chambers to call it a day.

And the routine was the same, every day. And En was so happy for it.

But one day after being in the swings she said: "Hey, what if we skip dinner?"

"Sounds good to me." Edmund shrugged

They kept walking past the gardens and past the stables, they had almost reached the woods and she couldn't bring herself to say it.

"If you wanted to go hiking at night, you could at least told be to change my clothes" He was right, En noticed turning to look at him. He had his royal gowns on. So, did she; En was wearing a long and elaborated dress.

She opened her mouth but nothing came out of it.

Maybe it wasn't the time. She could always tell him later. She internally cursed Mrs. beaver for telling her that sometimes a good haircut helped for a new start. En had cut all of her hair off! Well, not all of it, but it fell only over her shoulders now. Still, she didn't feel the confidence she had been waiting to be born within her…

"En? Are you okay?" Edmund asked her taking a step towards her. The moon was already in the sky, and the moonlight was the only source of illumination they had.

His eyebrows furrowed, he took once step more to her and put a locket of her short hair and put it behind her ear. Only then he noticed.

Her lips were trembling. Slightly, almost unnoticeable, for someone who didn't know her. But he knew her for a lifetime.

"En?" He whispered.

She sighted and looked at the sky for a moment.

"Dear Aslan..." She murmured to the sky. Then she looked at him and raised on her tiptoes to finally unite both of their lips.

* * *

Three months later, the royal family was having breakfast when Peter, at the head of the table, started talking.

"Lady Alev's father sent a letter this morning, Ed" Peter said before drinking of his orange juice. "They'll be visiting us soon and he says she would love to take a ride in horse with you around Cair Paravel."

"Nice." Edmund, sitting to his left, responded "It's just I wouldn't love to."

Peter put his cup down and Susan patted Enola's back a few times after she almost choked with her bread for the laughter.

"Aww, don't me mean, Edmund" Lucy sitting by Edmund's left side and in front of Enola complained.

"Exactly" Enola exclaimed "Don't be mean, Eddie" She buttered her bread some more.

"Actually, there is something I wish to inform you family." Edmund said standing up from his seat, he gave Enola a knowingly look and the woman who was still buttering up her bread opened her eyes wide.

"Now?" She whispered in vain because all the table heard it.

Edmund raised his eyebrows and nodded.

"Oh, okay!" She smiled nervously as she stood up too.

"Enola and I... we..." Edmund started. "We want to get married."

And so, the preparations began.

Lucy was so excited she couldn't contain her joy, even though she still asked En "How?" and "Why?" But she loved the idea nevertheless. Peter had been the one who had put the most "but"'s. It was just so weird for him. He had seen both kids grow up together. He had always seen them as his siblings.

"But she is not really our sister, remember, Peter." Susan had finally convinced him.

* * *

After a pair of months, it was all ready. All of Narnia had been invited. If only they could contact Aslan...

The weirdest part of it all was mentioned by Edmund one afternoon after he had been practicing with his sword on Philip with En. They were exhausted, both were laying on the grass looking at the sky.

"I can't believe we are getting married tomorrow and we've just kissed once." He said.

En giggled and raised to rest her head on her elbow.

"It's because I don't want to scare you off. Not after my last try of "kiss"."

Both of them laughed at the memory. She had been on her tiptoes and, because of her right leg, she had ended up falling but not before dragging him down with her, then she had started to excuse herself saying things like "I'm not that kind of woman, it was my leg, I swear!"

En put her free hand on Edmund's mouth.

"You don't have to wait until the wedding for the second one, though." She stayed that way for a few seconds. He raised his eyebrows at her as a smile appeared in both of their faces. "Forget it, you're so arrogant, you'll have to wait."

"Oww, come one!" He groaned when he saw her standing up and running into the castle.

That same afternoon she was with Lucy on their swings.

"I can't believe it." Lucy said lowly "Yesterday we were two kids in two swings trying to see who could reach higher, and tomorrow you'll be marrying my brother." Lucy shook her face and turned to En with a smile so full of sentiment, even her eyes where glistening with tears.

"I can't believe it, too." En whispered.

Then, Lucy frowned in confusion.

"So, you'll become queen?" Lucy's eyes opened wide. Aslan had said to her friend she would become queen one day.

En who had already thought about that nodded.

"I guess, this is how Aslan wanted it to happen."

"But, that means..." Lucy kept frowning.

"...that Aslan has to be there." En realized with nervous. That she hadn't thought about. "If a daughter of Eve becomes queen he has to be there, so I can sit in the throne."

There was something of it all that was bothering Lucy. Not the wedding, or the coronation. No, Enola deserved it all. But there was something that kept repeating in her head.

. _..the third daughter of Eve..._

 _...the third daughter of Eve..._

 _"_ _...the third daughter of Eve.._." Lucy whispered to herself and then something grumbled, and both girls fell to the floor.

They helped each other to raise up.

"Look," En pointed at the floor "they are broken." The wood that had sustained them for many years and the ropes that had sustained the wood were on the floor.

"Don't worry." En put a hand on her shoulder "Peter can always ask for new ones." She said before walking away. But Lucy stood there, looking at the broken swings, then she looked at the horizon where the sky met the sea, she couldn't stop frowning.

* * *

After an uncomfortable talk with Susan, Enola felt that she was ready to get married. She already knew how babies came to life, she was almost 23 years old, for Aslan's mane!

"I can do this." She kept saying "I can do that." She raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, I can."

"En," Susan called her for the third time "pay attention."

"Sorry, ha ha. Pre-wedding nerves, I guess?" She shrugged.

Susan looked at her with love. With pure utter love. A special motherly love that Susan had always had for En. And whenever En thought of her mother the only image she could remember was Susan's.

Susan grimaced. She didn't want to cry.

"En," Susan took a deep breath "even though you'll be my political sister since tomorrow, you should know that you're just like any of my other siblings to me."

Enola didn't like to see Susan crying. She preferred to see her angry or annoyed but never crying. Because if Susan was sad, how could she be happy?

"Susan" Raised from her seat and went to hug her. She was still younger in height than Susan and probably that was tallest she would ever be in her life, but she couldn't care less because when she hugged Susan her head fitted perfectly just under Susan's and there in the arms of the woman that had once taken the job of raising her being just a teenager, Enola didn't feel alone. She felt peace.

* * *

Still, the peace didn't last forever. Edmund was no longer allowed to stay in her chambers at night or at any hour of the day, for that matter. En couldn't sleep, even when she grabbed her raggedy doll. So, she stood up and walked out of her room. Something was calling her to the library.

She went there.

She felt a shiver down her spine when she walked through one of the great doors of Cair Paravel's library. There, in the middle of the room an ancient book was opened over a stool. It was calling to her as if there was something she needed to know...

She read along the lines, it was a prophecy, the prophecy.

.. _.two sons of Adam..._

 _...two daughters of Eve..._

 _...Cair Paravel..._

She knew it all already. She didn't understand. Then the page turned by itself.

"' _And before the third daughter of Eve, in Cair Paravel shall sit, a white stag in the southern mountains traveling to the past will appear'_ " She read. "Is...is this talking about me?"

"It is, my child." Enola raised her head and there was the great lion, Aslan. "You've been long enough away from home, dear." His voice sounded sad "You've started to forgotten."

And with that last word all her old memories returned to her. Her grandmother, her mother, her dad.

"' _Before the third daughter of Eve..._ '" She whispered " _in Cair Paravel._.." She couldn't finish it. "I was never meant to be queen, was I? I'll never get to marry Edmund," She whispered to herself, her breathing becoming heavy, her teeth clenching. "Am I the one that will lead them back home?"

"Yes, because where you are taking them is the path they would've been if you had never came to Narnia." Aslan answered.

So, En was only taking them back to their true road. They were meant to get back to their home... Aslan had granted her the happiness of living in Narnia with a family who really loved her, even if she'd had problems along the way. But she had been happy. Truly happy.

But...

"Then, I'll never marry Eddie. I'll never see him again..."

"You will see him if not in this live in the next one or through someone else's eyes." Aslan was always right, right?

"I guess, there is nothing I can do then." She nodded closing the book.

"You have to leave now." Aslan said and she walked to him and gave him a last hug.

"Thank you..." She said "for this amazing life."

"I want you to live your next life by what you learned in this life." He said and in the blink of an eye he was gone.

En stood there, for at least five minutes, in silence. She didn't cry. She was grateful. Yet she knew she had to be strong for what was about to come. She turned around to the door and there it was him.

Peter.

"You're leaving" He said.

Had he missed the part where it was said that they were all living? Maybe that's how Aslan wanted it to be.

"I am. And I need your help."


	8. Hours later

8.

Hours later, the 5 royals were horse riding after the white stag.

"I can't believe we are all doing this!" Susan's voice was heard through the woods.

"Aslan wanted us to go after it before the wedding, sorry!" En responded.

"This is funny, Su, stop complaining." Lucy's voice rang "Still, we should hurry, or there'll be no wedding."

"At least we can keep all the cake for us." Peter joked.

"Hey! Wait!" Edmund was being left behind.

Peter had woken them all up at night, except Lucy, she had been woken up for the soon bride-to-be. They had a mission, specifically ordered by Aslan, before the wedding.

To catch the white stag.

And so, they had been horse riding all night. Edmund slowed down when he heard Philip's heavy breathing.

"Come on, Ed." Susan came back to him, followed by everyone else.

"Just catching my breath"

"That's all we'll catch at this rate"

"What did he say, Susan?" Lucy said meddling.

"' _You girls wait in the castle. I'll get the stag myself'_ " Susan said imitating Edmund.

They all started laughing, except Enola whose eyes had been distracted by something. They had arrived, she observed.

"What's this?" Peter was the first one of the Pevensies that noticed it.

He climbed down his horse and her sisters followed him. Enola climbed down with the help of Edmund. He gave her the look he had given her all those years. He would raise his eyebrows at her every time she put a special effort on her right leg. The look would say " _is your leg okay_?" En would only smile back at him.

"It seems familiar" Peter said.

Enola took a step back and look at the four Pevensies right where they had started.

"As if from a dream." Susan said hypnotized by the lamp-post "Or the dream of a dream"

Enola gulped.

"Spare Oom" Lucy realized, then she took off running.

"Lucy!" Peter called her.

"Not again." Susan complained before going after her. Enola was not fast enough to hold Edmund back for a minute, he had run off too. But she was quick enough to grab Peter. She put something in his hand. Peter looked at her in confusion.

"Whatever you do, don't open your hand until you reach Lucy" En grabbed his hand as if her life depended on it and gave him a quick hug. "Now, go!" He pushed him away, and he took off running after his little sister.

Knowing Lucy, she wouldn't stop until she reached their home.

Enola was alone, again. She closed her eyes letting the tears roll down her cheeks as she knelt and crawled inside the trunk she knew was behind her. It was so much smaller than she remembered. Once inside she saw how its opposite end was not opened, so she did the same thing she had done all those years ago, she rested her face on the ground and closed her eyes.

She fell asleep, again, and only woke up because of a voice calling her.

"Ennie! Ennie!" A male voice. Could it be Edmund? She wondered as soon as she opened her eyes but a look at her hands she knew she was back in her world. America. "Ennie!"

"Dad?!" She called suddenly recognizing the voice.

"Ennie?!" The voice insisted.

"Dad!" She yelled as she crawled her way out of the log but before she reached the opened end, the face of her father appeared at the end. "Daddy!"

He helped her out of the log and hugged her as if his life depended on it. She started crying.

Her father!

They were finally together. She kept weeping and when she began to control her breath she noticed he was also crying. Dad never cried. Why could he be crying? Had he really missed her that much?

"Let us go home, Ennie" He said after he controlled himself.

When he started walking, though, she noticed he was limping.

"Dad, are you okay? Is your..." His right leg was parched up.

"Let us go home, Ennie" He repeated.


	9. Manchester,1984

_Manchester, 1984_

 _1._

"So, may I go, mother? Please" A teenager begged through the brick mobile phone she carried everywhere, her voice slightly trembling.

Mostly, it was only used between mother and daughter. And it seemed that the call was going to cost really expensive, especially for the distance between them. She could hear her mother speaking to someone else at the other end of the line. She was probably in a meeting.

"I don't really want to go, but, I promised Scarlet and you promised me that if I..."

"Hold on there, just a second please." The blonde teenager sitting on the floor heard her mother talking to somebody else.

Then she was back with her, the girl arranged her glasses on her nose bridge.

"Edna, I am busy right now" The woman's cracking voice said emphasizing each word and making her daughter cringe at each one of them. "How's school?"

Edna prayed for the day mobiles would sound better. Sometimes she couldn't understand her mother.

"Good!" The teenager exclaimed knowing that her mother would start with her little interrogation and that could only mean one thing: maybe, probably, perhaps, she would get to hang out with her only friend just for an afternoon.

"Have you finished your homework?"

"As soon as they gave it to me" She answered back.

"What about your French classes?" She heard her mother speaking a bit more out of the line, the blonde's expectations falling to the floor.

Her mother was not paying attention to her.

"Yes, good."

"The Russian ones?"

"Perfect!"

"Chinese"

"I'm working it out."

"Spanish?"

"Good, good! Mother, all of them are okay."

She heard the woman sight at the other end of the line.

"Please!" Edna begged one more time.

"Where are you now?"

"At the Academy." Edna looked around at the high ceilings, the wooden floor, and at herself, sitting on the floor, in every mirror that surrounded the great space of the ballet academy. Her voice trembled again "I-I wanted to practice, alone."

"You're there? Alone? Right now?"

Her mother never liked when she wandered alone, which, Edna had always thought, was an irony because Edna was always alone. She didn't care about being alone, though. It allowed her to do all the things she had to do to make her mother happy.

Honestly, she didn't really want to go to the movies with Scarlet, sitting inside a movie theater for two hours eating popcorn was a waste of time. Still, she had promised her friend to go with her and watch the movie that had just came out, _Ghostbusters_. She couldn't give herself the luxury of losing her friend (because it wouldn't be the first time she would let her down), she didn't have another one. Maybe, it was for the best, Edna thought at times. Maybe friends were a waste of time. If anyone wanted to become a successful woman, just like her mother, they had to prepare just like her mother, just like Edna was preparing herself.

"I-I wanted to practice, before the other girls arrive..." Edna answered, stuttering. "I wanted the dance room all for myself"

It wasn't true.

Edna took off her sunglasses and heard her mother sight. It was no surprise she didn't have any friends. Nobody liked her.

First, she was a nerd, a know it all, and her looks shown it off. She was the daughter of the most important woman in England, after the Queen, of course. But she always had her nose stuck inside a book, she lacked social skills. Well, she had skills, but Edna had always been taught to be direct, honest, and carry out the things she was asked in the most efficient and effective way. People, girls especially, have never liked that. In their eyes, Edna was her mother's robot, and she seemed to like it, which was worse.

"You can't never be successful in life if you keep cowering every time a girl tells you that you don't look good on your glasses" Her mother scolded her.

The glasses were not the problem now. Edna looked down at herself and sighted. She couldn't tell her mother the new gossip going around the ballet girls.

"Listen, you are a professional." Now her mother had her full attention on Edna. It seemed it only happened when her mother had something to complain about from her. "You've been in this as soon as you started walking. Those girls have nothing on you. You are a professional." She repeated. "Behave like one." She ended.

Edna's lips started trembling. Soon all of her was trembling trying to hold on her feelings.

"Okay" She answered.

They stood there in the line for a few seconds, in silence.

"What about this..." Her mother started, though her voice was starting to sound in parts" I'm at Paris... I'll be back at... at night...since you have your free day...all day in the Academy"

It was early in the morning and Edna was hoping to go to her house to rest for a while and come back after the students of the Academy left at night. But her mother wanted her to stay there all day...

"...what if I pick...see your routine and decide... tomorrow with Scarlet or" She paused "if you'll stay all Sunday... practicing to improve your..."

Edna's face contorted in vulnerability.

"Okay" she answered. Edna never knew if her mother ended the call or if the line just crashed.

* * *

She had been practicing all day, her feet were hurting and so did her arms.

The Academy students have finally started leaving. She had survived another day in hell, with all the gossiping and the harsh stares. She was taking a break, sitting on the floor with her sketchbook and her colors lying on the floor by her, drinking water and eating a chocolate trying to hide it from view, as she drew a set of tiaras and crowns in colors like red or green or bronze. Her hair was finally free from the tight bun it had been in all day. Her long, wavy hair, fell down her back in a cascade of silky locks.

God, how she wanted to cut it all off. It only attracted more eyes. Why couldn't she just keep it short like her mother's?

She saw Elena's gang at the other side of the room, they were there, looking at her. And she was trying to hid under the pages of her long sketchbook.

"Edna!" A voice called her.

Everyone in the room turned at the entrance of the room. There, in all her glory, was standing Mrs. Taylor-Moore.

Even in her fifties, her face was so well taken care of, you could barely find wrinkles in her face. Her body, was so thin and fit, that every girl in the room wished to look like that in their fifties. Her hair had always been over her shoulders, since Edna could remember. And even if the moon rose high in the sky, she wore her black sunglasses and bloody red lipstick. More than a business woman, Mrs. Taylor-Moore looked like a film star.

Edna put everything inside her bag as soon as she could, dropping a color here and there. When she walked to her mother, the woman was talking to the CEO of the Manchester's Royal Academy of Ballet.

"Yes, I like what you've done with the place..." Her mother was saying. Being a co-owner of the place of course she'd have something to say. "We can talk business later, I just came to pick-up my daughter, darling." She said with the sweet voice she used when talking in public "Thank you, take care."

No wonder, people adored her. The CEO would never walk out of her office, but only when important people arrived. And, well, Edna's mother was at the very top. The sunglasses turn at her and Edna knew she had her mother's attention.

"Go ahead. I want to go home, sweetie"

"Yes" Edna took her tick hair band out of her back. She had been waiting for this all day. "Just let me put on a hair..."

"Edna, if you haven't finished with your practice, you shouldn't get too comfortable."

Her mother was a good mother, but she had authority and presence and whenever she talked all the room would hear. It just made it all more embarrassing for Edna.

"Sorry, mother" She murmured trying not to catch more attention.

"I don't have to keep repeating myself, sweetie." The woman said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Edna decided to let her hair down. It would be a nuisance, but she had danced before like that. She walked in the middle of the floor and turned to the piano, where Gatleen, the olive- skinned prodigy piano guy who was currently visiting England in his world tour, was. She nodded at him, and he arranged himself to start playing. He already knew the piece she was dancing, after hearing her practicing all day.

And so, she started.

She had never really liked ballet, but she was good. Really good.

The skirt of her black dress, as long as her shin, flew around her with every pirouette and arabesque she did.

The kitri's grand jeté was perfection.

The piece had reached the adagio stage, where she could take a breath, still she couldn't relax for she had to be even more concentrated as she slowly moved across the floor. She felt her ankle throb, but she hold it in. She was halfway there.

Croisé.

Attitude.

Adagio.

Adagio.

She gulped.

Adagio.

She lowered to the floor.

Adagio.

Her arms stretched to the sky. In a second she was dancing again across the floor.

Allegro.

Allegro.

Seven double and one triple fouettés.

Faster.

Faster.

Her ankles failed her...

But somehow, she managed to finish it.

The room was silent.

Rufina Liukin, champion of the Prix de Lausanne when she was only 15 years old, and instructor of the Manchester's Royal Academy of Ballet was the first to talk.

"It-it wasn't bad" She stuttered standing next to Mrs. Taylor-Moore.

Edna noticed, even the famous Rufina Liukin would speak up as if she was asking for permission to do it, near Edna's mother.

"It was bad" Her mother replied taking her sunglasses off. "And what was that at the end?"

She didn't sound angry. She sounded confused, still everyone in the dance room didn't know personally her mother. They didn't know she was just startled. In their eyes she was humiliating Edna.

"I thought you had been practicing all day. I don't know..." She was perplexed.

Edna could feel the dozens of eyes on her.

"My ankles..." Edna tried to explain. "I think I over..."

"You've been overstretching and rolling them too much. I know, I saw it." Her mother argued "I am not a ballet dancer yet I know you're not supposed to do that" She shook her head, her voice coming each time more acute. "Edna, are you or are you not a professional?"

It had started to become too personal, that even the pianist guy had decided to walk out of the room. It was just Rufina, Edna and her mother, then.

"I-I am" She answered holding in her tears. She sighted and turned around. "You must be tired mother, go to our home and rest..."

"And you?" Mrs. Taylor-Moore asked her, already knowing the answer.

"I'll stay... and practice" Edna answered still holding it in. "just for a few hours more. Then I'll go to rest and come back first thing tomorrow morning."

"Good," She couldn't see but she knew that her mother had just put on her sunglasses "that's what I wanted to hear"

Then she left the room.

"Edna?" Rufina asked her with worry.

"I'm okay, Rufina. I just need to practice some more. Thank you"

And then she was left alone, only then she relaxed.

* * *

Edna didn't last long in the practice room.

She tried to, but her ankles were killing her and everyone knows that athletes reach a point where all they have to do is rest. So, she walked through the halls, past the other practice room where younger ballerinas prepared, past the jazz department and the contemporary dance one. She walked down the stairs, but she didn't go to the main entrance of the building, no. She walked to the now closed practice room of pre-ballet for the littlest girls. The new room was in the second floor, so the original one wasn't used anymore.

She walked into the room, the light off, and there where white sheets covering old stuff. Edna remembered that place bigger, but then again, she had been 3 years old when she was there. Now she was about to turn 18, and yet she was still marveled by the great and ancient mirror standing in one of the walls. It was cracked at several parts and the years and dust had blurred the reflection, she noticed as she touched the cold surface and her fingertips got covered in dust.

But, what marveled her about the mirror, was the golden frame of it, adorned with flowers and structures which made it seem like the cover of a tree. In the middle of it, at the upper part there was a craving of a lion, looking back at her.

The sight of it had helped Edna pass through those hard first weeks when she had to enter into the discipline of ballet. Edna remembered the blurred memories. Now, she had returned but searching for a bit of comfort.

It wasn't as comforting as she had expected.

She turned around and rested her back on the mirror, not caring if her ballet dress would get dusty, or if she would get dirty. During practice she had taken her glasses off, after everyone left she had put them on, and once again she was taking them off and putting them into her bag.

She closed her eyes and tried to meditate.

She had to work harder, she had to be the best, she had to put feeling in her dance; the technique mattered yes, but Rufina's problem with her was the lack of feeling in her dance.

She had to improve.

She had to...

But she never finished her mantra because she felt the mirror supporting her disappearing and then she was falling.

* * *

Back at last. After a year of waiting, they were finally back at last. Susan couldn't believe her eyes as she played around in the water, laughing, while Peter and Lucy kept throwing water at her. In the distance she saw Edmund smiling looking around him while pushing Peter, but suddenly stopping.

"Ed?" Susan called him "Ed!"

"What is it?" Peter asked him.

"Where're you supposed to be are?" He replied.

"Where do you think?" Peter thought it was obvious.

"Well, I don't remember any ruins in Narnia" He said.

All Pevensies stopped their games and turned at the green cliffs, where the ruins rested. Susan's eyes flickered down at the beach. There was something bothering her eye. It was something gold over the sand. She took a few steps in said direction, slowly, when panic raised on her chest.

"Edmund!" She yelled.

With difficulty because of the crystal water and the little waves of the sea, Edmund went to her in just a few seconds. His brother saw what she was seeing, and soon enough so were Peter and Lucy.

"D'you think that is..." Lucy never get to finish it, because her siblings were already racing to shore.

Susan's heart stopped for a moment when she realized that the golden she had seen over the body of the girl lying unconscious on the sand was actually the sun's rays reflecting back at her on the golden hair of the girl.

Her younger brother was the first one to reach her and he turned the body around, with a bit of force.

"Carful, Edmund! She's unconscious." Susan scolded him.

"Sorry, I" He said looking at the girl's face "just thought it would be her." He finished.

It wasn't her, Susan noticed. First of all, this girl was blonde, and too skinny, you could even see her collarbones. Also, that, she was dressed in a black dress that was showing off all of her arms, and part of her back and chest area. Susan saw she was carrying a bag with her and in her feet she was wearing a type of shoes she had only seen in a classical dance and music recital, on tv, and books.

"A ballerina!" Susan shrieked "How did she end up here?"

They all took a look at their setting. Ruins? A ballerina? Where they really in Narnia?

"Give her some space" Peter demanded since everyone was around her, she probably couldn't even breathe. He leaned down to check her. "I think she drank water."

He then proceeded to give the girl CPR, just as he had learned on his previous life...and at high school.

The girl started coughing and gasped. Susan helped her turn around so she could spit it out. She was heavily breathing and it seemed she had a headache, because of the way she rested her head on her hand.

"Are you okay?" Lucy asked her.

Edmund and Peter had moved a step away out of respect and to not scare the girl.

"Where am I?" The blonde girl whined as she slowly sat up.

Edmund and Peter look at each other. Susan knew what they were both thinking. Where were they?

"We want to know too" Peter answered her. "We were about to find out?" He extended a hand at her. "Would you like to stay here under the sun or do you want to come with us?"

The girl opened fluttered her eyes, rubbing them, mostly because of the salt on them. Once she seemed to see properly again, and noticed her bag, she opened it, took a pair of glasses out and put them on. The ballerina looked at Edmund, then at Peter, a double look at Lucy, then at Susan and back to Peter's hand.

Susan had noticed the clear blue eyes the girl had, almost as clear as Narnia's sky in a sunny day, like hers. Susan had hoped to see whiteish grey eyes, but she only found blue, behind a wall of glass.

Finally, the ballerina girl gave Lucy one last look, frowning, before taking Peter's hand.

* * *

And so, Part 2 begins. Gosh! Can you believe I wrote all of part 2 in like 2 days? And just for the record, I don't know a thing about many topics I talk about through the story(ballet, for example) yet, I made A LOT of research for this story. Seriously, every single thingy in the story has a meaning or reason to be, so, yeah I had a lot of research to do, but I loved it!


	10. They had been exploring

2.

They had been exploring the remains of who knows what for hours.

Lucy noticed the stranger girl had taken a liking at following, specifically, her. She also noticed how she kept muttering to herself: " _Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god."_

"What is it?" Lucy asked her. "Is it too bad to wake up in a paradise looking beach?" She half joked.

It seemed that the ballerina didn't understood it.

"Are you kidding?" She replied with nervousness. "I shouldn't be here, I don't how I came here!" She kept looking at herself and at the trees "This isn't possible and doesn't look like Manchester at all!"

"Manchester? So, you are British!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Well, yes."

"Susan!" Lucy called her sister. "She says she's from England!"

"Good. Now, what's your name again? Because I keep telling you in my mind " _the ballerina_ "" Susan confessed with a laugh.

"Edna." The ballerina (Lucy realized that she too had been calling her that in her mind) responded, fidgeting with her skirt. "Pleasure"

Lucy saw Su smile and walk away. Then Lucy walked to what looked like the remains of a balcony.

"I wonder who lived here" Lucy said and turn just to see her sister grab a golden chest piece from the floor.

"I think we did" Su said.

Lucy and the girl named Edna walked to Susan, just in time just to see her brothers arrive.

"Hey, that's mine" Edmund stated "from my chest set."

"Which chest set?" Peter asked him.

"Well, I didn't exactly have a solid gold chest set in Finchley, did I?" Edmund took it from Susan's hand.

"Solid gold?" Lucy heard the Edna girl speaking up. They all turned to her and Lucy could have sworn she flinched "Wait, did you say Finchley?"

"We are from there" Edmund answered her.

But Lucy had ran off.

"It can't be!"

Their home. They were really back home, but Lucy could hear her heart breaking the more she looked around her.

It was wrecked.

* * *

"I really hate to meddle, people." Edna asked for attention. "I really do. I don't think I should be between the four of you but... can someone explain me what's going on?"

Cair Paravel? Catapults, attacks and a secret door? Edna hated not knowing what was happening, especially when it seemed that even the youngest girl in the group knew.

The blonde boy had just finished ripping his shirt, only to find out that the dark-haired boy had a torch. They were all on their way down when she finally spoke up.

"You might want to follow us before we explain anything." The torch boy at the front of the group replied to her "Seeing is believing, after all."

They came walking down until they reached a big room, with statues and vaults and solid gold treasures. Edna saw each of the kids walk to one of the five chests that were there.

"I was so tall" Edna saw the littlest girl grabbing a dress.

"Well, you were older then" Her sister replied.

"As opposed to hundreds of years later when you are younger" The torch boy had put on some kind of medieval metal hat or whatever they were called in his head, and Edna couldn't help but laugh at him. When the kids turned to her with cheerful smiles she shut up immediately.

She wandered around, giving them as much space as she could. She really didn't like being meddling in family business. Well, at least she thought there were some family business going on around. Still she couldn't understand the ways they talked at times and nothing about the place she was in made sense... and at the same time, it did.

There was something awfully familiar about the place. She just didn't know what.

She gave them minutes alone, but she couldn't bear not knowing why she was there anymore

"I think it's time we find out what's going on" She heard the blonde boy saying and yes, she wanted to find out too.

"Sorry, hmm" Edna raised her hand and with little steps she went back to them "I- I want to know, too" She scratched her hair and arranged her eyeglasses. "Where are we? Who are you?" The girl begged. "Please, I have to go back to home, I have stuff to..."

"Let me introduce myself" The tall and blonde teenager took a step towards her. "My name is Peter Pevensie," He pointed at the dark haired boy who raised a hand as in saying 'hello' "my brother, Edmund Pevensie, and my sisters, Susan and Lucy Pevensie" Edna already knew which one was who. "We are from Finchley, but here..." He paused "Here we are the kings and queens of Narnia"

"Narnia?" Edna whispered to herself, her eyebrows frowned "Narnia?" She repeated and turned to the blonde boy "Narnia!?"

* * *

Edmund was really intrigued about the girl who wouldn't stop talking. Actually, he preferred it that way, since he was so interested in everything she'd been saying. All of them were.

"Ever since I can remember" She had said as she had taken out of her bag a sketchbook "I've been drawing about snow covered and green forests, about mythical creatures, " She had opened it and shown them her drawings some of them just done by a pen, others filled with colors. "a castle, animals that in my head I knew that if they had ever existed, they talked, places, things..."

"Is that..." his sister Lucy had pointed at a specific drawing.

"It is!" Susan had exclaimed.

There, in black and white, was a drawing of their long lost friend Mr. Tumnus. For Aslan, the girl knew how to draw! She was so good.

"Wait," They had been sitting on the floor of the chests room, the girl, Edna, talking about the images that appeared and disappeared from her mind every now and then. "Turn around the page!" Edmund had exclaimed and Edna did.

All eyes went to Lucy and then to Edna.

It was a view of two wooden swings hanging from a tree and two girls on them, yet their faces couldn't be seen, since they were all colored in black, as if they were shadows, in contrast with the sun going down at their backs.

Then his siblings' eyes were in him. He couldn't stand their stares so he cleared his throat.

"We should change out of these clothes" He said.

And so, they all did. They were all now in their Narnians gowns. Even Edna.

It was obvious that "her" belongings were not to be touched, not even by himself. So, Edna borrowed a dress and a pair of slippers from Lucy, since Susan's clothes were too big for her thin frame. They all took their weapons, except for Edna, and walked out of Cair Paravel's ruins. He could still hear Lucy and Edna talking about her drawings; Edmund knew that Susan and Peter were also trying to hear as much as they could from the girl.

Edna had suddenly and unexpectedly filled him with a sentiment he hadn't felt in a long time.

Hope.

If they had come back...what if...what if "she" had to?

Walking behind everyone else, he took out of his pants an old-looking, crumpled piece of paper ripped out of an old book. The last part he could tell, because in the back of the real message there was a text of an ancient Narnian bedtime story. The sheet had been ripped out of its book in a hurry, at a last minute. Ink had been spilled on it and the message was starting to fade.

He read it and re-read it.

In front of him, he could hear his young sister and Edna talking.

"So, they call you Lu...Su...Ed...and,"

"And Peter" His sister interrupted. "At times we call him Pete but sounds weird, doesn't it?"

"I-I," The girl started, stuttering "I guess so. I guess just Peter is okay."

"And what about you?"

"I've never had a nickname" Edmund put the paper inside his pants again and raised his head "Mother, thinks it's improper for a lady"

"Finally, a woman who gets it!" Susan groaned. She had been in the front with Peter, but slow down her pace so Lu and Edna could catch up with her. "I believe it's so improper to change one's name! Still, living with the Pevensies, well, it's like a tradition putting on a nickname."

"Except for Peter?" Edna asked.

"Except for me" Peter answered with a smile without turning back.

"Then, how should we call you?" Lu asked her.

"Edna?" Edna shrugged with insecurity.

"No," Lu groaned "like, really call you?"

Edna started fidgeting with her glasses, something that, Edmund wondered, she did when she was nervous.

"Okay, okay." The girl said taking a deep breath " let me think, I'll think of something good. Don't worry..." She started moving her lips and looking at the sky in thought. " you could call me..."

The girl had lose her footing, but Edmund quickly took her by an arm.

"Ed?" He finished as if it was the only option.

They all kept on walking, know the three Pevensies and the girl from Manchester, side by side, only with Peter at the front.

"But, then we'll have two " _Ed_ s" Lucy frowned.

"Then, Edmund will have to share his nickname" Peter joked at the front.

* * *

"Are you sure this is safe?" Ed, not his brother, that one was fighting with a dwarf, the other Ed jumped behind Peter as soon as the spar started.

"Edmund's the best swordsman in all Narnia" He answered her.

"I thought the dwarf said a hundred years ago." Edna cringed with each clash of the swords, Peter noticed. "Maybe he's out of practice" The dwarf hit Edmund in the forehead. "A bit rusty, perhaps" The fight was heating up and Edna let out a squeak. "Believe me I know how important practice is." She whined, terrified.

"Well, at least you are safe, right?" Peter joked "Since you are using me as a shield."

And the fight was finished.

"Maybe that horn worked after all" The dwarf said sitting on the sand in defeat.

"What horn?" Su asked him.

The dwarf sighted.

"We should get moving before more Telmarines arrive"

The dwarf stood up and walked to the boat in which he had almost been murdered. Peter signaled his group to follow him, but stopped before getting on the boat.

"The name's Trumpkin, by the way" Peter crossed his arms, wanting the Narnian to keep talking "I'm taking you to the hole where we've been hiding all this years. If you wish it." Trumpkin moved his arms as if inviting the royalty into his humble medium of transport, which in reality that was what he was doing.

Peter was the first one to get into the boat, and helped the girls get into the boat. When they were all ready, Peter started paddling it.

At his back where his sisters with Trumpkin, while in front of him sat both Eds.

The travel through the river was quiet. He could feel his siblings' depression just as he felt his. Yet, the girl in front of him, Edna, seemed amazed by the view that surrounded him. She avoided making a sound, of course. But her wonder was too contagious that even he thought that maybe Narnia was not lost. If a stranger could come and look at Narnia as the wonderland it had been, then not everything was lost, right?


	11. Edna had not realized

3.

Edna had not realized how dangerous Narnia was until the attempt of a bear to attack Lucy. Well, putting it in perspective Edna would've never go and talk to a bear just because. Maybe the Pevensies were the real dangerous ones.

No, they couldn't. They had been nothing but kind with her.

"You're always moving your glasses." Peter told her.

They had been walking through the woods, following Peter now, since he had bragged that he knew his own kingdom just like the palm of his hand. They've been walking for hours and Edna was longing for a pair of tennis shoes. Lucy's slippers were uncomfortable for hiking, yet none of the Pevensie's boots had fitted her.

Her feet were hurting and God knew how much she needed to take care of them. Even if she didn't know if she was ever going back to Manchester.

God, she hated to bother other people, that's why she didn't like being with people. She didn't want to complain about it, didn't want to ask for a break.

That's when the fidgeting started.

She had thought that if she was at the front of the group then she would see in the distance their final destination, eventually, and it would motivate her to keep going. But there was nothing to see, only bushes and trees and Peter.

"Oh" She left her glasses alone "I didn't notice. It's like a tick." She sighted "Mother doesn't like when I do it."

She saw Peter hesitating.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Your mother sounds like a strict woman." She could tell that he didn't mean it in a bad way, but merely an observation.

"And you are very observant, aren't you?" Edna smiled with awe.

"Just about what I'm interested in." He said after clearing his throat, but soon realized how that had sounded. "Not that I'm interested in your mother...or you glass..." He made such a funny face that Edna had to cover her mouth to laugh. "You know what? Let's leave it at _I am observant_ "

Edna controlled herself.

"Ditto" She murmured to herself, knowing how improper it was to speak in such expressions.

They kept walking for a few minutes more, in silence. Edna could hear Trumpkin's steps behind them and near behind, Peter's siblings.

"So, you are a ballerina?" Peter was talking again? Why was he talking again? Didn't he know how bad she was at talking? She remembered he didn't. He hadn't known her before Narnia.

"Yes." She tried to answer as short as possible.

"And a student?"

"Yes" she asked as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"But you're not, like, a professional ballet dancer, are you?" He frowned.

"Well, of course, I am a professional one. Why?" She had asked him because the look in his face showed pure perplexity.

"Because..." He didn't know where to start "I know that to become a professional in arts or sports takes a lot of effort and time." He shook his head and started moving his hands around to make a point "So does being a student. I was finishing my last year of high school and I've heard college gets worse" He turned to her "How old are you anyways?"

"Seventeen" She answered.

"That's my point. What're you going to do when you get to college?"

"Well, I was thinking in majoring in something related to Economics, just like my mother" She answered innocently.

Peter stopped for a second and looked at her raising his eyebrows, as if she was mad.

"Dear Aslan." He said before walking again and shaking his head in shock.

Edna stood there, for a few seconds, now her brows furrowed. She started walking again, quicker, to catch up with Peter.

"Peter," she called him "I don't think I understand you. What's the problem?"

She was almost jogging to keep up with his long steps. Peter blinked and shrugged.

"I just..." He shrugged again "I mean, I respect your opinion, but if all your time is spend in studying and practicing, where's the time for living?"

"You mean free time?" She asked him starting to understand what he meant "Why would I want free time when what I need is more time to do what has to be done?" She finished, and just as she did she realized that it sounded kind of wrong.

Peter raised an eyebrow at her and kept walking. She decided to stop and wait for the other Pevensies, they didn't interrogated her as strictly as Peter.

Trumpkin passed by her.

"You're a bit ambitious, don't you think?" The dwarf said without stopping or even looking at her.

Ambitious? She wasn't ambitious. She just had to be perfect.

* * *

By Aslan's mane, Peter did have a character. First, he had returned Edna looking a bit down, then he had started arguing with Trumpkin, later he was being mean with Susan, and finally he hadn't believed her. Only Edmund seemed to be willing to listen to her.

Lucy had seen Aslan, she hadn't imagined it.

She knew Peter was in a lot of pressure, he had to solve all that was wrong in Narnia the last hundred years. He was the ancient High King, after all. Still, Lucy felt miserable as she gave the river her back. Edmund and Edna where there.

"If it helps," Edna said toying with her glasses over her nose bridge. "I have several drawings of a lion on my sketchbook."

Lucy and Edmund look at each other. Then she turned to Edna.

"I'd love to take a look" She replied.

The sun was going down; their group had to camp that night out on the woods. Lucy saw Edna sitting at the other side of the fire, her arms hugging her legs and her chin resting on her knees. Lucy would've given the girl a penny for her thoughts.

Narnia was to Lucy her real home. So, she was worried how it felt for Edna, to appear in it one day. Did she feel comfortable? Lucy wanted her to feel comfortable, a guest should always feel comfortable at her house. Lucy stood up and went to take a sit beside her.

"You are okay?"

"Yes, Thank you." Edna said without moving.

"You sure?" Lucy didn't want to be pushy.

"It's just that..." Edna started, her voice echoing the fire's cracks. "I've never slept out of my house before, even less out in a forest"

"You're parents never took you to camp?"

"My parents..." Edna hesitated "They don't really leave together...if you know what I mean." She didn't look embarrassed, but sad.

Because of the way she had said it, Lucy knew that Edna's parents had not been separated for the war. Lucy's had, so maybe by saying so to Edna she would feel more comfortable around her. So, she did.

"Really?" Edna asked her head no more resting on her knees. Lucy didn't know what took over Edna, but for once she didn't do the older girl flinching or fidgeting as she spoke up her mind "I don't really like this new tendency in parents, about separating. They don't know how much harm they inflict on their children"

"Sometimes is inevitable, Ed." Lucy shrugged "Like the war."

"But it's not like a war is separating them" Edna shook her head.

Lucy frowned.

"It does." Lucy nodded "That's why my parents are far away from each other."

"Because of the war?" Edna's legs fell to the floor. Lucy nodded. "You mean..." Edna narrowed her eyes "the Cold War?"

Cold War? Lucy didn't understand.

"Iraq's?" Edna tried again.

"I mean World War II, Ed" The 11-year-old said.

Theoretically, Lucy was young but she was well informed about the war with Germany.

"Oh," Edna nodded understandably, but frowned again, that had been like 40 years ago "Oh?"

Edna scratched her head and arranged her glasses.

"Lucy, you live in Finchley, right?" Lucy nodded, Edna was starting to act strangely. "In 1984?"

"In 1943, Ed." Lucy responded suddenly understanding what was happening.


	12. First thing in the morning

4.

First thing in the morning, Edmund came to Edna and returned her the sketchbook he had asked for.

They had restarted their journey. Where? Edna didn't completely understand, she just knew that as long as she stayed with the Pevensies she wouldn't be alone and henceforth, would be safe, even in the woods.

They had been looking at a men society behind some trunks. Edna didn't understand why they were hiding but she guessed that the men cutting down trees and working on them were the "bad guys".

At the end, they returned to the river they had been the day before. Lucy had found a way to cross the river, and the group safely did.

It took them a whole day and then they were again camping in the woods. And it wasn't the England's type of camping, with sleeping bags, tents, marshmallows as she had read once in a magazine. Apparently, Narnian camping consisted in sleeping over the grass around a fire, with no sheets and the food was mostly based on fruits and fish from the river. Edna decided to stick only eating a handful of apples.

At least, she had Lucy with her, which was really comforting. Especially after the night before, when they had both discovered that they had come to Narnia from two different eras. They decided to keep it a secret for a while. Well, not really a secret but Edna and Lucy knew there were more important and dangerous matters in which the Pevensies had to focus on.

The next morning when Edna woke up, well, was woken up she noticed Lucy was not lying beside her. Peter was nowhere to be seen.

Edmund was hurrying her and they arrived just when Susan called Peter.

He was with another man, one or two years older than Peter.

"... I thought you'd be older" Edna heard the man (Prince Caspian, Peter had called him) saying.

"Well, if you like we can come back in a few years" Peter replied and Edna covered her giggle with her hand.

She now knew, High King Peter had a character, especially when he had to make up his country after being a hundred years away. Still, it was funny to see Peter's interaction with Caspian. Edna could tell he didn't like the prince at all.

Then they all started walking, all the creatures, which somehow didn't startled Edna as much for all them looked just like in her drawings.

She secured her bag on her shoulder and walked up to Lucy. They heard the two dwarfs talking in front of them. Edna was enchanted with the little... not-so- little mouse. She had wanted to carry him up, but she thought that maybe he would get offended if she had asked.

Edna then walked up to Edmund.

"Hey!" She called him "I didn't get to ask you what you thought about my drawings…"

Since the day before, Edmund had been giving her these weird stares like he wanted to say something to her, but he just didn't.

"Yeah, about that," he started "you really don't know why did you draw all of that before coming to Narnia? Any idea?"

Edna shrugged.

"None at all" She pursed her lips "I'd always thought that it was just my imagination as a child. Why?"

Edmund hesitated.

"Let's just say that I'd like to search for someone..." He paused "if there is a..." He started wiggling his right hand's fingers "magical reason behind your drawings maybe you could help me find her."

"Well, I see all of you around here are special..." Edna pushed her glasses on her nose. "but, sadly, Edmund, I don't think I am" Her face contorted "At least I haven't discovered I have witch powers, yet, like a Samantha from Bewitched" That Edmund didn't understand. "But believe me, if I did I would definitely help you. "She vacillated but ended putting a hand on his shoulder. He looked so young and lost, she felt the need to do it. "So, it's a girl."

Edna didn't know why was she even asking. Well, she knew, she was curious. Even more because her drawings had seemed to affect more to Edmund than to anybody else.

Edmund's mouth twisted, but he nodded. He sighted.

"Ever since we left Narnia," He confessed "my family and I decided to keep up with our lives, just like she had asked for..."

"But Ed, "She shook her head at the 14-year-old's logic "didn't you left a hundred years ago?"

"We did, but" He nodded "she was from our world, Ed. She arrived with us and, apparently, left with us. It's complicated."

It really was complicated.

"You, you..." Edna didn't want to overstep her boundaries "loved her?"

"I promised I would always protect and take care of her" He answered "We were going to get married."

He gave her a sad smile before walking away. Well, Ed's story had left her depressed too, but the sadness was replaced by astonishment.

"Married?" Edna murmured to herself "I thought he was 14!"

* * *

Susan was at the verge of tears as she stood in front of Aslan's table.

Her siblings and Edna had been warmly welcomed by the Narnians at Aslan's How. Seeing all the centaurs receiving her made Susan felt like she really was back at home. There was only one thing missing. "Her".

Susan sighted, she had promised to herself that she would stop thinking about her. She didn't want to forget about her, no. But she still felt it too recent. She couldn't imagine how Edmund was feeling, being back at Narnia, but without her.

It got harder when Caspian took them all through the deepest corridors of Aslan's How, where the walls were painted with images of their past lives. She saw Edna admiring them, running her fingers through and frowning at the sight of a 5th silhouette on them.

Then they arrived at the table.

The thing that Susan liked the most about Edna was what a lady she was. She had left her side and walked to the back, with Caspian, as soon as they arrived at the table, gave the Pevensies the space they needed to mourn for their loved, old memories.

Hours later, when the meeting to talk about what the next action against the Telmarines would be, Susan appreciated once again how Edna stood silent, listening the war meeting with respect, knowing that there was nothing she could do about what was being discussed. She could only provide moral support, as she saw Edna holding Lucy's time the whole meeting, and walking out after Peter when the meeting finished.

It made it all more difficult for Susan, to be near her. She didn't dislike the girl, no. But Edna was everything that Susan had wanted her second sister to be, and because she wasn't everything why Susan had once scolded her for.

Susan sighted.

* * *

Peter didn't have to turn around to know that he was being followed. All he had wanted to do was to be alone, to calm down. He knew that whoever it was, Peter would have to ask for forgiveness later. He simply wasn't on the mood.

"I know you are there" He stopped suddenly. Actually, he didn't know who it was, but the other person didn't know that.

"I-I'm sorry" He heard as he sat on one of the How's guard posts, outside over the rock roof. "I-I'll go if you want..." She didn't finish it "Forget it, I'll just go."

"Hey" He called her.

He felt the girl returning, and he made some space for her to sit. She did, slowly, but she did.

"Aren't you supposed to be making a war plan or something?" She gave him a half-smile. He didn't answer her. "Sorry." She shrugged "I just saw you so... distant?" He remained silent. "You kind of remember me of my mother, you know?" She said and he snorted "Really! She's so stubborn and she feels the necessity to win always." Peter raised an eyebrow as in saying _not helping._ "No, listen. She never loses a business deal, she's so hardworking and people just love her for that. I too admire her, but I think that we don't always get the full picture of why she does what she does." Peter was now hearing her "I believe she thinks that things have to be done by her or they won't be perfect. And even though you see her investing in things like fashion and beauty markets, she also has several foundations that help children, the homeless... Also, she knows that if she fails, she's not only failing to herself but to all of her workers." Edna sighted "Things always have to be done by her, but she couldn't do a thing without her elite team. That's her motto: _If you can avoid working alone then avoid it._ "

Easier said than done, especially with Caspian around.

"Wow," Edna frowned "I'd given an inspirational speech. I should hear at my own tips. Was that inspirational?" She asked him, sincerely wanting to know.

Peter smiled.

"I got lost a few times, but it wasn't bad." Peter answered her "It sounds like your mother really has an empire. Maybe she could send us some troops" He joked "Are you sure we're not talking about Elizabeth The I?"

Edna covered her mouth and laughed.

"What's wrong with the II?"

"She's not queen yet." Peter shrugged and saw Edna about to argue but she just pursed her lips.

Then she covered her mouth and laughed once more.

Peter leaned on his elbows and turned to her.

"You always do that, don't you?"

"Do what?" She asked in confusion.

"Never mind"

They remained silent for a few minutes.

"Now what?" Edna asked him "Are you going to war?"

Peter nodded.

The sky was dark, Peter noticed and so did she, because suddenly she said she had to go inside.

"Hey, if it helps..." She said "the last time I managed a visit to the movie theater... I think it was last year..." she murmured to herself the last part" I saw the _Return of the Jedi_." Peter looked at her in confusion "You know the movie about the wars in space... "

Now he was more confused. Did he hear space? Wars? How could there be a movie like that when they were going through a war already back at their world? Also, that didn't even make any sense. A helicopter by itself was dangerous, how could someone battle out from the earth? Sure, he thought with sarcasm, humans fighting in the space...

"The thing is you should consider sending someone in advance" Edna explained "to the castle of the bad people, I mean. Someone who can make the entrance for the rest of you easier, instead of all of you running to their door." Edna kept going "Use as much air force as you can. And that someone from before, has to be agile." She smiled "Like _Luke Skywalker._ "

Then she left.

Peter stood there, confused for a pair of minutes. Then it all started making sense. Their attack to the Telmarines, of course, and how it would be delivered. The space battles and the guy who could walk in the sky never would.


	13. Edna felt so useless

5.

Edna felt so useless the following day. As everyone was preparing for battle. She noticed that the only woman going was Susan. The rest had to stay behind to protect the youngest Narnians. Lucy was staying behind, too.

"Why are you staying behind?" Edna had asked her.

"I've never liked being in the battlefield." Lucy had answered "I'm more of a healer. Susan's the female warrior Pevensie."

And so, both girls job was to stay out of the way for the rest of the day.

The troop left during the afternoon. They had to if they wanted to arrive to Beruna at midnight.

Edna saw Lucy giving a hug at her siblings. Just before they turned away, she saw them looking back at her. Edna didn't feel like smiling so she just raised her hand in farewell. Peter and Edmund nodded and Susan smiled at her.

Caspian passed by her in his way out.

"Caspian" Edna called him. She had always thought that Caspian felt just like her surrounded by the Narnians, like an outcast. "Good l..." But she stopped herself, remembering the last conversation she'd had with Peter. She just hoped her mother wouldn't appear out of thin air and scold her " _May the force be with you_ " She said before covering her mouth with her hand.

Caspian eyes fluttered in confusion but slightly bowed at the girl accompanying the kings and queens of Narnia, in gratitude.

When she turned back at the Pevensies, Susan, was giving Lucy one last hug, while Edmund was waiting for Caspian. Peter, Edna noticed, had already turned around and walked away decisively.

Edna turned around to walk into the so-called Aslan's How, but the faces of despair in the Narnians, especially the females, stopped her.

Susan was going to the attack and had her same age. She was also a lady. If she could, why wasn't Edna going to fight?

 _Because she is a queen_ , a voice inside of her said. Edna could be one, too. Not a queen, but a female warrior. After all, even if she wasn't a Narnian, they had been feeding her, clothing her, giving her shelter and being nothing but kind to her.

Hence, a soon as the troops left she had already decided that she too wanted to learn to fight.

And it seemed even more obvious for her that she had to the next morning, when the troop...or what was left of it, returned.

She knew they hadn't won as soon as she heard Caspian and Peter yelling at each other and clashing swords.

Edna's heart broke when she saw a female centaur crying for her deceased lover. Edna had never talked to her, but she walked to her and gave her a hand that the mourning centaur gratefully took.

* * *

Peter was back at the guard post where he had been sitting with Edna a pair of night before. After what had happened at Aslan's table, he really was feeling lost.

He was sitting with his knee bended up so he could rest his forehead on it.

He heard Susan calling him from behind but he chose to ignore her. He really needed to think. But he couldn't for every time he closed his eyes Jadis' reflection looking back at him from the wall of ice appeared.

He thought that he would never have to see her again. At times, he still had nightmares about his first real battle with her, how she had kidnapped and injured two members of his family. But dreaming about her and seeing her while he was conscious, even if it had been through a sheet of ice, had left him terrified.

Even more what she had said to him.

" _You are so lost, you know you can't do this alone_ ," she had stretched her hand out of the ice " _fearing about failure and loss, when you've already had both. Unfocused, with useless sentiments being born inside you for the one who represents what your royal family has no more, being herself what once was and is gone. Deceiving your brother is all you'll eventually get, at least let me help you save Narnia_." She had raised her icy eyebrows at him, reaching even more. " _You know you can't do this alone_."

And then she was gone, stabbed by his own brother, just like she had stabbed Edmund once.

"Susan" Peter interrupted her from all the scolding she was giving him and he had ignored. "When do feelings for someone else are born inside of us?"

Peter was High King of Narnia, still, he still had trouble to understand at times the ways older and higher voices than himself spoke.

"How's that related with what I was talking about?" She whined.

"Just answer, please"

She sat beside him, in a proper manner, of course.

"Well" she sighted "I guess there's just one way that can go: when you make a love or hate relationship."

"Love?" Peter raised his head at her, his face twisted with confusion.

"Yes, but you know there are several ways to love," She explained "like when you love someone so much you want to marry that person, or when someone's part of your family you can't help to love them. Loving those who are loyal to you is a good way to love to. And friendship..."

"Friendship?" He interrupted.

"You can't help but develop lovely feelings for those who become your friends." She shrugged and frowned. "Peter, are you alright?"

Peter could see in his sister her worry for him. Seconds ago, she had been complaining about his irresponsible actions and then they were talking about friendship and loyalty, family and lovers.

Peter sighted and stood up.

"I have to make things right somehow" He muttered before going inside Aslan's How.

Jadis has been right, he was lost and he couldn't do all alone. He needed his siblings, his allies and his friends. But most of all, he needed Aslan. So, he escaped from Susan and ran into Lucy as he sat in front of the image of Aslan carved on the wall of the table's room.

And then the Telmarines arrived.

They could be seen in the distance, marching to them, putting up tents to camp.

Peter called for a meeting.

He had to trust and Lucy, but most of all, he had to blindly trust in Aslan, so when he explained his plan out loud of course there was some arguing.

"Then I'm going with you" Trumpkin said to Lucy.

"No, we need you here" She replied.

"We have to hold them off until Lucy and Susan get back" Peter explain.

"I could go with Lucy" A voice raised in the room. Every pair of eyes turned to the blonde girl whose hands were strongly gripping at her skirts.

"No offense, Ed" His brother said "But even you've said it, you'd be useless in a sword fight"

"Lucy needs protection, Ed." Susan complemented.

"I-I know" Edna replied "But if Trumpkin is staying because they need him, then so should you Susan." Edna took a step to the front "I may not look like it but I'm a strong, and fast, and agile. Even if I don't stand a chance with a Telmarine, I can be a distraction, a distraction enough so Lucy can escape". She paused and gulped visibly "Give me a sword and I'll find a way to use it"

"That's too risky, kid!" Trumpkin exclaimed. "Not only for Lucy, but for you! You may run, or horse ride as fast as you can, distract the Telmarines...but no one can run forever. Eventually they'll catch you and kill you"

"I believe that everyone will be risking their lives soon. Even if I stay, I won't stay inside with the littlest Narnians while all of you are fighting for our lives outside" And there, Peter saw a spark in her eye that he had seen before. As she walked out of her shell, even though she was giving hesitating steps, she suddenly felt…too familiar for Peter "I'd preferred to be a nuisance for the Telmarines in the woods than to be a non-fighting nuisance for you in the battlefield. So, give me a sword." She finished.

The room stood in silence for a few seconds.

"I hate to say it Peter," Susan said "but if anyone can do what she does in a dance floor" Peter knew what Susan was talking about, even if he knew that his sister had never actually seen Edna doing it. "then they are strong enough for this." Susan sighted "I can accompany them for a part of the trip and then come back while they keep moving. Then Lucy won't be alone at any time"

"That's your new plan?" Trumpkin groaned and pointed at Peter "if you agree to this you'll only make it worse"

Of course, he wouldn't. He didn't doubt Edna's ability, but why would he increase their possible number of losses?

He looked at Edna, to deny her sacrifice... but he couldn't. The look in her face, not defiantly, no, but begging stopped him. She was begging for a chance to prove herself, to actually do something that could help them. And also, the familiarity he had seen before in her, as if something inside of Edna was awaking didn't let him refuse it.

Even if it wasn't the best moment, he remembered Jadis' words: _...the one who represents what your royal family has no more, being herself what once was and is gone_...

What if she...

What if for some magical reason she was his youngest sister?

If anyone could do something like messing around with the Telmarines, it would have been her, the missing sister?

Peter nodded at Edna.

"It's decided then."


	14. Edmund had been sent to Miraz

6.

Edmund had been sent to Miraz in order to carry out Caspian's part of the plan, while Susan and Lucy where preparing themselves for the journey.

Edna was in one of the rock covered chambers from Aslan's How. She had been with Reepicheep, as the mouse gave her the fastest lesson of everything she needed to know about a sword and how to use it. Edna was no fool, she knew that if it came to that, the sword would be more of a nuisance to her than a weapon. Still, she was hoping she could manage a trick with it, even if it resulted from an adrenaline rush. God, she should have taken fencing classes instead of ballet.

"I'll take it from here, Reep, thank you." Peter said walking past Edna and facing her.

"As you wish, my liege" The little mouse bowed before leaving.

"You're okay?" Peter said taking his sword out.

God, it made Edna shiver. Reepicheep had only been telling her how to take her sword and move it. He hadn't actually crossed swords with her. Besides Peter's looked so deadly, Edna could bet it had seen many bloody battles before.

Edna just nodded, while crossing her black, large leather bag over her head and opposite shoulder.

"I see you're ready to leave." Peter pointed at her back with his sword.

"It's all I have" She shrugged "I can't leave it behind"

Peter nodded and frowned.

"Beside your sketchbook what else you carry in there?"

"Oh" She opened it and took a look inside "just that, my color pencils, my ballet shoes and my wallet" she frowned "I just noticed that my brick's not here, I probably left it at the Academy…"

She closed it and turned to Peter who didn't seem to understand the last part. Oh, sure. Brick. They didn't have those in the 40's, they barely had them in the 80's and the signal was the worse.

"It's not an actual brick" Edna explained quickly, arranging both her glasses and the sword on her hand "You know what? Forget about it."

"Forgotten" Peter answered with a smile, he then took a stance.

Edna mimicked him.

"You're not actually fighting with me, right?" Edna's eyes opened wide in fear "I'm not even a beginner!"

"You're not telling the Telmarines that, are you?"

Peter's stance relaxed and walked to Edna. He took her left arm with the sword, noticing only than she was left-handed. He frowned remembering what he had heard about left-handed people, the words like "stubborn", "awkward" and "evil" appearing in his mind. Meanwhile, in Edna's time, there was no reason for the teachers of the daughter of Mrs. Taylor-Moore to believe in the Soviet's superstitions in the 80s.

Peter arranged her arm in a posture where the sword was blocking her from him.

"With luck, all you have to do is this." He told her before taking a step back.

Then, he raised his large and dangerous sword and clashed it with hers. Edna felt every single bone on her body vibrating. She hadn't expected that, still she was safe, because her reflexes had made her take a hard grip on the sword just in time.

"Pete, you'll kill her before she even goes out" Edmund arrived with a joke. The 14-year-old (who actually looked more like a 16-year-old because of his height and strength) looked at her. "Sorry, he'll be the type of father who believes that the best way for his children to learn how to swim is by throwing them at the ocean in their first class" Edna stopped herself from laughing. "Caspian's looking for you, Pete, now that Miraz accepted. I'll stay with her" Edmund turn then to Edna. "You should learn from the best swordsman of Narnia, after all. I swear I'll be gentler than my brother."

Edna saw Peter smiling and with a pat on Edmund's shoulder he walked away.

"Try to stay alive in a battle for at least 5 minutes" Peter said without turning back and Edna knew he was talking to her.

The blonde girl arranged her glasses on her nose and decided to focus on the matter at hand with Edmund as he started instructing her.

She never noticed Peter looking back at them one last time, feeling once more that sense of familiarity as he saw at both Edna and Edmund clashing swords. Peter had a deja-vu.

* * *

 _"You might need to call me again?"_ Lucy made fun of her from behind.

They were going out from Aslan's How. Susan was in a horse with Lucy, while Edna rode another one who was trained to follow Susan's.

"Oh, shut up!" She replied "Why don't we talk about that thing he said to Edna?"

"Yes!" Lucy exclaimed "By _force_ he meant Aslan's force right, Ed?"

"Um, yes." Edna answered unconvinced.

Still, Susan's good mood was ruined as soon as the sun fell on her back. In the distance she saw her brother in the middle of the field, and heard thousands of Telmarines cheering. When they reached the woods, they weren't alone anymore. The group of Telmarines had seen them. Edna and Lucy had to keep going. Susan climbed down the horse.

"Take the reins" She said to her sister. "I'm sorry, Lucy. Take care of her, Edna"

Then, she was alone.

She looked at her sister one more time.

"Come on, Lucy" She heard Edna hurrying Lu, and once again she thanked her internally.

Then she felt the world going in stop-motion. The Telmarines riding at her. She took a stance with her arc and arrows and aimed.

She shot one time, two times, three times, never missing. But they kept coming and soon she had been thrown to the floor by a horse. It was her end.

Then, out of nowhere a knight of shining armor appeared and saved her from the last Telmarine standing with just one swing of his sword.

"You sure you don't need that horn?" He asked, giving her his hand.

It was Caspian.

* * *

Lucy and Edna had been riding for a while after they left Susan behind. Yet, they were being followed and they wouldn't be left alone.

"Lucy" Edna called her.

Lucy noticed the older girl was having a hard time to keep her hair out of her face and her glasses on her nose.

"Lucy, keep going!" Lucy couldn't leave her like that. "Keep going!" She yelled at her.

Then Edna was not by her anymore. Lucy abruptly stopped the horse, she even had to embrace it to not fall. She looked around. She didn't know what Edna was doing. All she saw was the golden mane on her back moving with the wind, her horse going directly to the Telmarines.

"Edna!" She screamed just as she saw the two horses colliding.

What was she thinking? Even Lucy knew how dangerous that was.

Both, Edna and the man were sent flying to the floor. Edna, though, landed more graciously than Lucy thought she would; as if Edna had fallen hundreds of times from a high distance, which as a matter of fact she had, but Lucy didn't know that. Still, the impact disoriented Edna, which gave the man time to stand up and grab his weapon. He didn't aim it at the blonde girl, he was going to hit her from the back with it.

"Edna, watch out?" Lucy screamed just in time. Swiftly, almost as if she was floating, Edna moved under the arm of the man. Even with meters between them, Lucy saw the stupefied expression in Edna's face.

Then, the man and Edna started some kind of dance, Lucy thought. Every time the man tried to hit Edna, she would swiftly move out of the way, twirling and flowing behind him, before he could even notice she wasn't there anymore. But Edna's trick didn't last for long. Edna drew out her sword and it was her doom.

The man drew his sword, too, and then it was obvious who had the advantage. The man charged at Edna and in his first strike he sliced her on her stomach. The girl fell to the floor in pain, and turned to the man just in time to see him raise the hilt of his sword.

"Run!" Edna yelled, for she had seen Lucy watching her short fight. Then she was out cold in the floor.

Lucy's opened with terror just as the man turned and look at her. But he just took one step to her, before a large lion jumped on him, the man screamed and ran off.

Lucy walked to the lion.

"Aslan?"

* * *

Edna was now the one suffering from a deja-vu, opening her eyes and finding herself on the floor once more and the Pevensies surrounding her.

She had been in the darkness for a while, she could see herself in a dark place with a black marble-like floor and everything around her was in shadows. She started walking when she saw a glint of light in the distance. Of course, she had to walk there. She ran only to find a door, standing there alone. She even walked around it only to be sure that it was not supported by anything. The glint of light she had seen was coming from the key hole in the door lock, ancient like the door itself. Edna frowned when she tried to turn the knob and it didn't opened. She then decided to kneel and try to look through the key hole, just like she had done many times in her childhood at her old house in London.

She saw the door led to a room, too familiar for her. From what she could see there was a bed with white linens with little flowers, she could also see a bureau by the bed with drawings and colors on it. But mostly she could see a girl, illuminated by a candlelight on the wall.

The girl was little, she didn't seem older than 5 years old. Or 10? Edna had never been good to determine young children's age. But the girl had curly hair, long locks falling down her shoulders. The color? Edna couldn't tell, a candlelight wasn't the best source of light. The girl was wearing a long night dress and was drinking from a steaming cup. Edna inhaled and a chocolate smell filled her nose. She could see the girl talking, but couldn't hear a thing, so instead of peering through the hole, she leaned her ear on it.

Edna caught words like "Narnia", "forest", "beavers", and she stood up. Her face contorted in confusion.

Her mind wasn't asking her questions like where she was, or what she was doing. No. She felt in a dream state where you can't totally control your thoughts. All she wanted to do at the moment was to go through that door.

So, she knocked.

Edna heard someone moving at the other side of the door, she kneeled once more and took a look through the key hole, but it was dark for someone was standing there, and by the sound of the door, it seemed like whoever it was, was unlocking the door from the other side.

Edna didn't see who the person opening the door was, because she started to feel like burning. She wasn't in that dark place anymore. She was lying somewhere with her eyes closed and with a headache suddenly disappearing, just like the burning in her veins did.

Edna opened her eyes and the first thing she saw were the Pevensies surrounding her. It was just like the first time she had seen them, on the beach. At least this time she didn't have sand on her eyes and her glasses were on.

She noticed Peter was to her left, supporting her head with his long hand.

"Did I stay alive in battle for 5 minutes?" Edna asked her with heavy breathing.

Peter smiled.

"You stood there for 4 minutes actually." He joked.

And then, Edna was being hugged by them.


	15. You should've seen her!

7.

"You should've seen her!" Lucy exclaimed in amazement "She was brilliant!"

"I believe you are just saying that to make me feel better, Lu." Edna stopped her.

Hours later, that night, everyone was having a good time after the worst battle Narnia had seen in years.

The Pevensies, Caspian and Edna were relaxing around a fire on the woods. The Narnians were too, taking a break, camping on the forest. They would all leave to Beruna first thing in the morning, but for the night, Aslan had demanded they all needed to rest.

Around the fire, the teenagers were having drinks, courtesy of the soon-to-be Telmarine king. Edmund smiled at her sister story, what she had seen Edna doing against the Telmarine that had escaped Susan.

"It was like you were dancing with him." Lucy joked.

"Well, it didn't save me from this cut on my head." Edna pointed at the parched spot on her left side of hairline.

"Maybe you could give my soldiers some dance lessons, Edna." Caspian said before drinking from his cup.

"Oh, stop it." Susan laughed "I know you did great, Edna. Lucy didn't even get a scratch." Susan said sincerely.

"Thank you," Peter raised his cup at Edna. "thank you, Edna, for staying alive for 4 minutes."

"Hey!" Edna sitting by his brother made a funny face "I could swear they were like 15!"

"They weren't." Lucy meddled.

"Thanks, Lu." Both blondes in the circle said at the same time, one with mockery and the other with sarcasm.

Susan and Caspian laughed, while Edmund smiled. Then, Ed finished his drink in one gulp and stood up.

"I'm going to take a walk"

He hadn't walk for a long time when he hear he was being followed. He turned around and there was Susan.

"You okay?" She asked reaching and walking with him.

"Yeah, I just wanted to stretch my legs a bit."

They walked in silence for a while until Susan sighted.

"Really, what is it, Ed?" Susan asked "Your silence is killing me."

"It's just..." Ed started "now that it's all over and we got Narnia back... I was thinking about _her_ "

Susan stopped when she saw his brother take a piece of paper out of his pants.

"You still conserve that?" She frowned.

"It's not like I'm just going to throw it away" He shrugged. "It's the only thing I have of her. It's always with me"

Susan's look of pity startled him. His sister took the " _letter_ ", written at the back of a ripped page from their library, from his hand. He didn't need to read it anymore. He had memorized the message in it after reading it a thousand times:

 _Dear Edmund:_

 _I'm sorry I didn't tell you we were leaving, and by "we" I mean all of us. I am leaving, too. It's a task that I've personally been given by Aslan and I'm glad to do it, even if it breaks every piece of my heart._

 _Please, don't get mad at Pete, he didn't know I was taking you all too after the white stag so you could return home._

 _You can't imagine the sadness and despair I feel knowing we'll never get married, even when you still think we will. But even with the obstacles I've faced these past years, I'm thankful for the life Aslan granted to me in Narnia, with your family. With you._

 _I want you to always be the same sarcastic and funny boy I fell in love with, all those years ago, after the battle with the White Witch, when you took my hands in yours and said "_ I'll always protect and take care of you". _And you always did, Eddie. Thank you. Also, you were right, I didn't understand the whole picture of what you had done back then, I was just a child, but when I did it didn't matter to me for you were just a child too. So, stop blaming yourself for what happened, okay?_

 _Please, please, promise me you'll live a happy life. Get a job, meet a young lady and marry her! (Though she can't be prettier than me, okay?!) Have kids, please. (And feel free to call one of them like me. I sure will do the same with mine.)_

 _And if we ever get back to Narnia, we shall always be good friends._

 _Always and forever yours, Enola._

 _Pd. Not a good moment to confess, but you remember all the times you asked me if my leg hurted and I said yes? Well, I lied. I just wanted you to sleep on the couch. Sorry, I know you were uncomfortable._

 _Pd.2 I may not marry you tomorrow, but my heart is yours and always will._

"What're you planning to do?" Susan asked him with a smile after reading the letter.

Edmund could tell his sister heard her voice in the head too, while reading the letter. All the Pevensies did.

He still remembered walking out of the room where they had been telling the Professor Kirke their adventures in Narnia. Peter had gone after him with the crumpled piece of paper and hold him as Edmund read the letter out loud, his hands trembling, his voice failing him. He knew his fiancé had wanted it to be a letter to calm him down, and it had succeeded with his purpose by making his anger disappear, yet the sadness remained for weeks. When he found the strength to show it to his sisters, at first, they got angry for he had kept it hidden, but after hearing its content they breathe once again, knowing her sister was too safe and sound at her previous home.

Edmund's first motivation to keep up with his life was knowing that he could find her. She was in 1942 when she appeared into Narnia, just like them.

So, he had to study, and work, and maybe one day he would be able to travel to America and find her. Even if all the Pevensies knew about her was her full name (her last name being Woods) and where she had lived before moving with her grandmother, New York City. It would be difficult, but then again, just like Edmund had thought the first time they met, she really had a weird name. That, he could use to his advantage.

But they were back at Narnia.

"Ever since we arrived, I keep thinking maybe she came back to." Edmund said to his sister, while putting the letter safe in his pocket.

"You should ask Aslan" Susan shrugged "He's back after all."

"That's where I was going." He answered.

Susan put a hand on his shoulder and then hugged him.

Edmund didn't know that Aslan had spoken with Peter and Caspian, telling them he would see them again until the coronation day.

* * *

That same night, Edna dreamt of the dark place and the door. This time when she placed her ear on the key hole she heard more whispering: "castle", "witch", "pain".

She knocked once more, but she was woken up by Lucy. They were leaving for Beruna.

The truth is Edna preferred Beruna over the woods. It was the most civilized placed she had seen in Narnia, with its high buildings and towers, and the castle where they would stay until Caspian's coronation.

"Where're you going after the coronation?" Edna had asked Peter as their horses advanced side by side, through the streets of the Telmarine city.

"I was thinking in rebuilding our old home." Peter answered her. Edna raised her brows knowing he meant the ruins they had seen after they arrived at Narnia. "Still trying to figure out how we're going to do that, though."

Edna kept frowning, the ruins they had seen were far away. What was going to happen to her?

"Don't worry" Peter read her face "You'll come with us...if you wish it, of course"

Edna's bedroom was beautiful. Everything look ancient and beautiful: the bed sheets, the bathtub, the curtains. It all felt familiar somehow.

Her favorite part were the dresses that Caspian had asked for, especially for her, and for Lucy, and Susan, of course. The three of them looked like princess.

"Well, you two are actual queens." Edna smiled at them.

"Thank you, Ed." Susan smiled back.

And the food! For Aslan's mane, the food! It was delicious. The Telmarines had everything. Even pancakes for breakfast.

The first days in Beruna were a paradise after being in the woods and under the earth for days. The only think that bothered Edna was how busy the Pevensies seemed to be, especially Peter. She was alone most of the time. She would've loved that before, but now she was so used to being with them that when they left she was a bit disappointed.

"What're you doing?" Peter asked her the third day in Beruna.

She was with Edmund in front of a fire pit in the middle of a garden. As usual she was carrying her bag with her.

"Edmund was just telling me that if I hate ballet that much I should throw my ballet shoes to the fire" Edna responded without taking her eyes from the golden embers.

Peter looked at Edmund and his brother shrugged at him with a mischievous smile.

"Then do it." Peter said as if it was the most obvious thing to do.

"But, my mother..." Edna started.

"Your mother's not here, and if you don't like ballet then you should quit it." Peter interrupted her.

"But I can't quit." Edna shook he head "Even if I don't like it, if I've never felt like myself while practicing..." She paused "She'd be disappointed!"

"Then you're not the one who's wrong." Edmund meddled "Everyone can be wrong, even your mother."

Edna bit her lip.

"Come on, I'll do it for you" Peter said extending her arm.

Edna just shook her head.

"It would be rude to do it, disrespectful." she said. "My mother..."

"Stop hiding behind your mother's shadow!" Peter exclaimed. "You love her and respect her, I understand. But this is not about her, it's about you and what you want..."

"Actually, I suggested it just for fun, Pete."

"No, Edmund. This is what she needs. Ever since she arrived at Narnia she's been nothing but afraid even of her own shadow." She flinched hearing his words, while Peter's mouth twisted. "This may be therapeutic for her."

"I can't." Edna said.

"Why not?" Peter asked.

"Because a lady should never be disrespectful"

Peter took a step to her and leaned to her ear.

"Ladies don't fight in wars, but you just did."

This remembered Edna of her thoughts as she had volunteered herself to go with Lucy into the woods. She had thought that she didn't care about not being a lady and fight as long as she could help others, especially those that deserved to be helped. Somewhere in the road, after the battle, she had forgotten about that. But hearing Peter helped her remember and she realized that she too deserved to be helped. Edna was worth fighting for, too.

"I've never liked ballet." She confessed more to herself than anybody else "I've never liked speaking with mother through a phone more than face to face. I've never liked not seeing my dad as much as I did when I was younger. I've never liked moving to Manchester." She continued, her eyes blinking "I've never liked not being enough at something I don't like, and...by Aslan's mane, I hate having to learn dozens of different languages!" She exclaimed "And I hate how I look with my glasses, but that's something I cannot change." She joked her eyes glistening. "But all the rest I can."

She took her ballet shoes out of her bag and was about to throw them into the fire.

"I also don't like not seeing you two as much as before" Edna said looking at both Ed and Peter. The brothers smiled.

"How about me and you go horse riding tomorrow?" Peter asked her. He hadn't included Edmund on their trip because his brother would leave Beruna for some days, until the coronation day, which was a week away. There was someone Edmund wanted to search.

"Deal" She said before throwing her shoes to the fire.

Her jaw dropped opened, not caring about covering it, at how she had done it. She then started bouncing and gave a scream of victory, still not believing her actions. Edmund cheered with her, as she beamed, just like Peter. But soon the boys' cheers stopped, looking at her, for her uncovered smile and cheerful attitude transformed her into someone different, not only metaphorically speaking. She did look different when she smiled, showing all of her teeth. The way her nose wrinkled and her cheekbones raised.

Peter and Edmund looked at each other with narrowed and opened eyes, respectively. But they didn't let the girl notice their expressions, they tried to hide it.

That night, Edna dreamt again of the dark place and the door.


	16. I've been having weird dreams

8.

"I've been having weird dreams ever since the fight" Edna confessed Peter the following day, while they went out on their horses.

Edna had been acting strange all day, Peter had noticed since breakfast. After being far enough from Beruna he had finally asked her what was troubling her.

"You can trust me, Edna." He had said "I'm your friend."

And he had meant it. Only then, the girl confessed.

"…and I can't stop thinking about last night's" she said after explaining how the dreams were. "It was the same as always, but...I heard a new voice. Not the girl's whispering voice. And I know I've heard it before, somewhere" She continued exasperated. "But it's so familiar, yet so...unfamiliar. If that makes any sense." Edna shook her head.

"Maybe you should speak to Aslan about it." Peter said.

"I've thought about it" Edna gave a brief smile at the horizon.

Peter had seen the effect Aslan'd had on Edna. When the girl first saw him, she didn't cower in fear, she had extended her arm and touched his mane.

"You're just like in my drawings" She had said.

"Just as you had imagined me" Aslan had corrected him.

No one had said a word, but ever since Edna and Aslan's meeting, Edna had started using Narnian colloquialisms as naturally as if she had used them all her life. With just one look at Aslan, Edna had delivered her heart to the lion.

"Then you should." Peter repeated.

"Where's Edmund anyway?" Edna asked him looking around them "I'd thought he'd come with us."

"Ed left this morning."

"Where?"

"He's searching for something."

"Oh" Edna nodded "When's he getting back?"

"He's not actually." Peter said seriously "He's never coming back."

Edna's eyes opened wide, she started moving her lips but nothing came out of them. Peter started laughing.

"I'm joking" He shook his head "He'll be back for the coronation."

Edna sat there on her horse with a hurted face for some seconds. Then she understood.

"You were making fun of me?!"

"Maybe I did." Peter said taking the reins of his horse. "What're you going to do?" He played some more.

"Well, I'll hurt you!" She exclaimed taking her reins too.

"How're you doing that when you can't even stand in battle for 5 minutes?" His horse started moving.

"I did 15 minutes, Peter, 15. I'm sure of it" She squeezed her eyes shut in annoyance. "I bet you couldn't even take a hold on me in 5. You've heard, Lucy" She raised her chin with superiority. "I'm as swift as a gazelle"

"Wanna bet?" Peter asked.

"Right now?" She frowned.

"Why not?" He crosses his arms "unless you're afraid."

Edna snorted.

That day, Peter discovered something. The White Witch had said feelings were being born inside of him for Edna. She had been right, since Peter was befriending Edna at that time. But the Witch never warned him how those feeling would start developing later.

* * *

Lucy was glad to have Edmund back. He had been gone for a whole week. All the Pevensies knew the reason, yet her brother returned alone.

"It's okay, Ed, " Lucy had heard Susan telling him with her hand on his shoulder "you can ask Aslan today".

Right then, Lucy was looking for Edna, they had to start to get ready for Caspian's coronation. In her search, Lucy found the soon-to-be new king of Narnia. She asked her for Ed.

"Didn't he arrive in the morning?" Caspian asked her.

"I meant Edna"

"Oh! Last time I saw her she was sparring with Peter on the west gardens."

And there Lucy found her.

"Edna?!" She exclaimed when she saw both her brother and her friend fighting not with swords, but with mud! "Peter?!"

Both blonde teenagers stopped and turned to Lucy looking at them horrorized.

"What happened to you to?"

"He started it!" Edna pointed at her brother in frustration.

Lately, Peter had developed a new hobby: making Edna angry. He bothered Ed every free time he had. During breakfast, at lunch, at dinner time. Most of the times it started with the Peter saying: " _You couldn't even fight a man for 5 minutes!"_

That enraged Edna every time.

"Stop acting like a kid, Peter. It's not funny" Lucy had once heard Susan alone with Peter, scolding him. "If you like her, then you'll just make her hate you."

"I don't like her." Peter had answered. Lucy didn't see him for she was hiding behind a wall, but she knew her brother. He was probably crossing his arms.

"Well, the ways you act says otherwise. Only a childish boy who likes a girl would act like that!"

"Well," he had said before walking away "I am not a boy, I'm a man having fun"

When Susan was left alone, Lucy heard her say:

"Then act like one."

Lucy could tell Peter really liked Edna, and not only as a friend. He would never play that way with Lucy.

Lucy gave Peter a look. Peter had stopped exactly how he had been when Lucy called them. His right hand in the air, with a ball of mud in it.

"Don't" Lucy warned him.

But he ended the work and Edna, not as dirty as Peter yet, ended covered in mud.

Edna screamed in disgust.

"You'll see!" She kneeled down to take some more mud, but...

"Look, what you've done to Caspian's flowers!" Lucy squeaked at the sight of the garden who was destroyed after all the mud digging. "Edna, stop! We have to get ready for the coronation. Peter, you too! Or I will call Susan"

Lucy saw Edna sight. She straightened up and walked to Peter.

"Just for the record, those were 20 minutes in mud battle" Edna said stretching Peter's dirty hand, just like her. The she walked past Lucy, walking as properly as usual.

"It doesn't matter." Peter said to Lucy. "I won"

Lucy rolled her eyes.

"You don't look like a winner, High King." She replied with sarcasm before going inside. Couldn't Peter just let Edna win for once?

Lucy arrived at the chambers the three girls stayed at, just in time to hear Susan scream at Edna:

"What happened to you?!"

* * *

Susan was delighted at how beautiful the three girls looked. Lucy was in a pink dress, making her look as youthful and pure as she was. Susan's dress was red and golden, she loved the trimming it had as decorations. She had chosen Edna's dress, it was a light blue which made Edna's eyes look clearer.

They walked to where everyone was waiting for them. She was so busy listening to Caspian's shy flatteries to her that she almost missed the look in his oldest brother, when he saw Edna the first time. There was no doubt. Peter was in love.

And Susan was so happy for him, in all the years they had lived in Narnia and when they had returned to England, she had never seen his brother the way he look when he was around Edna. Of course, Susan disapproved his way of getting near the girl, but maybe that was his way to relax after all the pressure he had been in the last weeks.

Susan's heart melted inside her chest at the look of his brother when Edna had to leave. She would she them at the piazza where the coronation would take place, for all the Narnians to see it. Only the kings and queens would parade. Edna didn't notice it, but Peter's eyes followed her every step until she disappeared. Only then Peter turned to Caspian and put a hand on his shoulders.

"Are you ready?" He asked Caspian.

Everyone stood up in the piazza when Aslan walked down the aisle with Edna beside him. She had a golden crown with precious jewels in it. Susan was not aware that Edna would put the crown on Caspian's head, nor the other Pevensies, until then. And by the looks of it, not even Edna.

It was probably a last-minute decision of Aslan. As the lion gave his speech, Edna walked to Caspian looking at her feet, probably wishing not to fall for the nerves.

"And now," Aslan's roaring voice was heard in all of Beruna. "The Second Royal Lady of Narnia will deliver the crown."

The Pevensies looked between them in confusion, there had always been only one Royal Lady of Narnia. The first one. Susan saw that Edna once again didn't knew what was happening. She had just been given a title!

"Edna?" Aslan's sweet voice called her.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" She excused herself embarrassed and walked to Caspian.

Susan felt that she had already been there, living that exact scene before.


	17. Edna had been walking around the castle

9.

Edna had been walking around the castle looking for Aslan. Susan had told her Lucy was with him. Not only was she still confused about this new title thing that had been given to her. Suddenly, every noble at Caspian's court wanted to talk to her just like they always did with the Pevensies. He had thought that her phobia for people had disappeared but it was still there, so she escaped out of the ball and decided to look for Aslan. Peter had told her a week before that she needed ask Aslan about her dreams, and since they kept happening she wanted to give it a try.

"Aslan!" She bowed her head as soon as she saw the little girl and the lion lying on the east gardens. The west garden had been closed after her mud fight with Peter.

"Raise, my dear."

And so, she did.

"I've been meaning to talk to you. If-if you have time, of course." Edna said giving Lucy a quick smile. "I can always come back later."

"You may sit with us" Aslan responded her. "Now, tell me about your dreams"

It didn't really surprise her to hear the lion already knowing what was troubling her. So, she explained it all, not minding Lucy was there and sitting beside her in front of the lion.

"... and I don't understand why I keep having the same dream. I thought that maybe you had something to do with them?" Edna asked

"What you dream" Aslan started "is nothing but what yourself and time have taken and tries to return to you thanks to the deep magic of this world."

Edna nodded. She kept nodding.

"Which means?" Edna asked him.

Aslan didn't answer her, he just breathed at her and Lucy. She closed her eyes and felt her body falling on the grass before losing her consciousness.

Edna was back at the dark place, but this time she was not alone.

"Lucy?" Edna asked her.

"Where are we, Ed?"

"I think we are back at my dreams" She answered.

Then from the corner of her eye, Edna saw the light again. She took Lucy's hand and both of them ran to they were in front of the door.

"This is it" Lucy said in understanding after having heard about Edna's dreams.

Edna kneeled in front of the door and invited Lucy to look through the key hole.

"You see it?" Edna asked her in whispers.

Lucy nodded.

"Edna, is that you?" She asked her voice low.

"What?" Edna frowned and it was her turn to look through the door. She couldn't see nothing but the girl. "It's just the girl, what do you mean?" Edna shook her head "Listen!" She said putting Lucy to hear the voice she had just heard.

Lucy kept frowning trying to hear it, but soon her face contorted in recognition as she heard the words that were clearly speaking of Narnia.

"This is the part where I knock" Edna whispered. Lucy's eyes opened wide as Edna did.

Both of them heard the noise behind the door, a key going into the door and the knob turning. The door creaked and opened slowly.

" _I'm telling you sweetie, there is nothing here._.." In front of Edna and Lucy's face was a large skirt. Whoever had opened the door was blocking their view with her clothes. " _But look at this, is a disaster!_ "

Edna and Lucy fell on their backside, scared of being discovered spying through the door. They raised their gazes to see the person looking through the door.

It was a woman.

Edna who was the worst at telling children's age but good at telling adults' age, noticed the woman was in her thirties. She was more on the thick side, her hair short and brown, grey eyes and her characteristic lipstick. Edna was surprised to see her without her sunglasses, she had to arrange her glasses just to be sure she was seeing correctly.

It was her mother.

She looked younger, for sure. And thicker. She couldn't remember a time Mrs. Taylor-Moore, her maiden name being Woods, hadn't been lean.

"Enola!?" Lucy asked the woman.

Edna turned at Lucy in perplexity. How did she know her mother's name? And why was she speaking with such familiarity?

" _I'll have a chat with your father_ " It seemed that her young-looking mother couldn't hear Lucy, nor see them. " _I can't believe he just tossed your toys like that when I ask him to arrange them..._ " The woman closed the door but it didn't actually lock. It was still open. Edna and Lucy not caring about being discovered anymore arranged themselves in a way that both of them could peer and hear inside the room through the opened door.

The blonde girl (Edna finally saw with clarity) was drinking how chocolate, sitting on the bed, while Enola Taylor-Moore sat in a rocking chair in front of her.

" _Where did I left, sweetie_?" Enola asked the girl.

" _Queen Susan was scolding En for all the cookies she was eating at the coronation ball_ " The girl answered.

" _Oh, that's true. And guess what happened then_?" Enola said while grabbing the crochet hooks she had been using.

Edna had never seen her mother knitting before.

" _Did prince Edmund appear_?" The girl asked with interest.

" _It's King, actually_ " Enola said as she kept knitting. " _Just King, though. Peter was the High King_." Enola seemed to be about to finish her work. " _But, yes_ ," She raised an eyebrow with a smile. " _he helped her to get rid of Susan_ " The woman joked just like mothers did, making weird voices, so even if their children didn't understand their jokes, they would laugh at the voice. The girl in the bed did. She put the hooks down and raised a tiny winter cap. " _So, what do you think? I'm just learning, have a little faith I'll improve_."

The girl reached an arm to the bureau by her bed, since his left hand had the cup, and took a pair of small glasses from it. She put them on with one hand, clumsily, before exclaiming:

" _He'll love it, mommy_!" The girl bounced, almost spilling the chocolate. " _How much longer 'till he arrives_?"

Edna saw her mother putting a hand on her belly, and understood why she had gained weight. She was pregnant.

" _Two months more, baby_ " She answered, standing up from chair and walking to the bed. Edna saw her mother's hands trembling as she did. She sat on the bed and took the cup from the girl. " _I know you are excited about having a brother_..."

" _I'll take care of him_ " The girl interrupted " _I'll bathe him, give him food, play with him..."_

 _"_ _But it may be a girl, you know_ " Enola said.

" _No, it's going to be a boy. I'm sure_." She reached for her mother's tummy. " _He'll be Edmund, so our names match"_

 _"_ _But if it's a girl_?" Enola asked knowing her daughter already knew the answer.

" _You've said Susan, but I prefer Lucy_ " The girl said in a playful tone.

Enola smiled, running her fingers through her daughter's hair in blondie curls. She leaned to give her a goodnight's kiss in her forehead and stood to turn off the gas candlelight on the wall.

" _Mommy_?" The girl called, arranging her glasses over her little nose.

" _Yes, dearie_?" Enola turned at her daughter who was pointing at the slightly opened closet.

" _Who are they_?"

Enola turned to the door, but there was nothing there.

Actually, there was. It was Lucy and Edna that somehow had been seen by the girl on the bed. Enola's eyes rested on them but it was as if she was looking at the air.

" _They who_?" Enola opened the door once more and after seeing nothing but her daughter's messed toys she closed the door, automatically sending Lucy and Edna back at the real world.

* * *

Edna and Lucy had been found lying on the grass, sleeping, with Aslan protecting them. Caspian, Edmund and Peter had been the ones who found them.

Caspian noticed that Edmund had wanted to talk to Aslan but the lion had asked him to carry his sister to her chambers, just as he asked Peter to carry Edna. Aslan had informed Edmund that he needed to rest.

"We may talk tomorrow" Aslan responded "if you still feel the necessity to talk"

And so, both boys carried the sleeping ladies to their chambers and then called it a night.

The next morning Caspian noticed that Edna and Lucy were missing in their breakfast. That is until Lucy appeared on the door, breathing heavily and her cheeks red. She had run out of the bed, looking for her siblings.

"I came as soon as I woke up. You won't believe what I just saw!" The girl exclaimed.

"What could you see in the journey from your pillow to the table?" Edmund joked.

"Be quiet, Edmund! This..." She said taking a deep breath "this is important."

Caspian had never seen her acting like that.

"Yesterday, Aslan took us Edna and me..." Lucy blinked trying to find the words to express herself "somewhere."

"Actually, those were Edmund and me, Lu." Peter said as he took a sip of his drink.

"No, I don't mean to our beds." Lucy shook her head strongly.

Caspian saw Edmund and Susan looking at each other. He was not the only one thinking it. Their sister was acting strange.

"I-I saw..." Lucy stuttered. She looked at Edmund. "I think I saw Enola"

The table erupted in chaos. In a second Edmund was beside Lucy, Susan was asking a hundred questions per millisecond, Peter was standing trying to make everyone calm down. The only one who remained silent on his sit was Caspian.

"Okay, shut up! SHUT UP!" Susan shouted and only then it all stopped. "Edmund sit down."

"Sus..."

"Don't get me started, Edmund. SIT DOWN!" Susan yelled one more time. She turned to Lucy "This is a serious topic, Lucy. You have a lot to explain."

"I do. I know" Lucy breathed out "Listen. Edna and I saw her. She couldn't see us nor hear us, though." Lucy remembered the girl "Not completely. Anyways, she's older! Older than she ever got to be here in Narnia. She had like 25 or 30. And she had a girl and was about to have a boy, a baby!"

The Pevensies were in shock. That didn't seem to make any sense for them, yet Caspian was at lost.

"Wouldn't she be 9?" Susan asked at her brothers, she even looked at Caspian in search of an answer.

"Lu, are you sure it was her?" Peter asked her in doubt.

"Peter" Edmund interrupted "Don't." He shook his head "Don't doubt Lucy" He looked at her sister.

"Thanks, Ed" She then saw at the other people on the table. "I know it's hard to believe. And I don't know how but it was her! She was pregnant and said that if it was a boy it would be Edmund, and if it was a girl..." Lucy stopped and smiled "Lucy"

The table was silent for a few minutes.

"She seemed happy" Lucy said in joy "Who cares why she was older? Or how I saw her? When or where? It doesn't matter. We know now she's okay and happy!"

More silence filled the table.

"She tells their children stories about Narnia and about us" Lucy finished.

The table kept the silent for a few for seconds. The information setting in. The Pevensies were not as joyful as Lucy thought they would be. The table was filled with sorrow, lost, despair. Sadness

The steps on the door were heard, yet no one turned around.

"I had forgotten…" A voice said "But now I remember."

Only then they looked at her, the girl who had delivered Caspian his crown, the Second Royal Lady of Narnia. Edna.

"I think you lose an important part of it all, Lucy" Edna said.

The blonde girl took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes, shining with tears that wouldn't stop rolling down. Peter stood up from the table. Edna put them on again and sighted.

"It was me." She said, making Lucy frown "The girl in the bed was me." Then she looked at the rest of the table. "Enola is my mother."


	18. It was too much for Edna

10.

It was too much for Edna to handle.

Suddenly she had remembered everything she had forgotten from her childhood, because of several reasons she didn't wanted to talk about. She wouldn't talk. She couldn't. It seemed to be too much for her to say everything she knew. Maybe she could talk to one person, then said person could tell the rest. The Pevensies needed to decide who it would be. They knew who would be the best one, the sweetest one, the most intelligent one. All of them deserved to be the one. But the one who needed to hear it first needed to be the one. It was decided then.

Edmund knocked the door where the girl had been all day.

"Come in" she answered.

Edmund walked into the room, closing the door behind him and sitting by her on the floor resting their backs on the bedroom.

"You're okay?" Edmund asked.

Edna nodded as she dried her eyes with a handkerchief. He didn't know how to start. Even more because of the way the girl was. So, he did the only thing he did whenever he was feeling as lost as he did. He took En's crumpled letter and extended it for Edna.

She read it, her forehead creasing. She would smile at times, but it never reached her eyes. The blonde girl read it like 4 times, it was a short letter after all. But it gave Edmund the time enough to notice everything of her that was just like his En.

The way her lips trembled, the exquisite nose and captivating eyes. Her smile.

"You know, the last story she told me about Narnia, was about that "En" girl being 11 years old. Then she never did... again" Edna returned the letter to him "Her writing's the same. Not as joyful, but..."

"How is she?" He asked Edna

She sighted.

"Who doesn't know the story of the amazing Mrs. Taylor-Moore?" She said with sarcasm, Edmund flinched when he heard the last name. Edna sighted. "My grandmother never returned from the war." Edna slowly shook her head "She never got noticed that my grandpa had been injured and sent back home. My..." Edna took her glasses of and started cleaning them with her handkerchief "mother lived with my grandpa, they both returned to New York City. But she grew up and she was ambitious, America was a hard place for her to study in," she rolled her eyes "for obvious reasons" those reasons were never explained to Edmund but it didn't matter to him. "So, she left her father and returned to her grandmother. She sent her to England." She put her glasses on "Enola was a really strong headed woman. The colleges were in crumbles, yet she would never miss a class."

"She got married late for someone of her time. She was thirty. I wonder why it took her so long" Edna said mischievously at Edmund "He was American, just as she had once been." Edna raised her eyebrows "Still, they lived in London, because even in her thirties my mother kept studying. ' _The more you learn, the better'_ She always says. So, they had me, in 1966 and we lived in London, happily, for many years..." It seemed to Edmund that Edna had finished.

"Then I don't get why you are so..." He said slowly. Miserable? Devastated? Those were the words that described how she looked, yet he didn't want to sound disrespectful.

"Because I believe that I forgot everything, all my childhood memories, all her Narnia stories and the ways she used to be… as a defense mechanism, Ed." Edna said, her eyes glistening again with tears.

"What do you mean?"

"It all stopped after Edmund." She said rubbing her eyes again. After Edmund?

"You mean your brother?"

"I mean my brother who never born" She answered. "After she lost him my father and her got separated, she started to focus more on her work and started preparing me into what I am now..." Edna paused "or was before coming to Narnia."

Edmund understood completely, all her memories were back, but so were the reasons why she had blocked them out for so many years.

"I believe that I've never liked ballet, but I guess that I really started hating it after my father stopped coming to see my presentations..." She murmured.

Edmund had walked into the room thinking that he would walk out crying, but somehow, he was feeling more concerned about the girl beside him.

"I never see my father too." Edmund said "He's off to the war."

Edna stopped her misery for a second and looked at him.

"I'm sorry"

"Look at it this way, you can always go back and spend more time with him, okay?" Edmund said putting a hand on her shoulder.

She nodded.

"And about your brother..." Edmund didn't really know what to say about that. Why had he brought that up again? "I'm sure he's..."

"In a better place." Edna finished, nodding. "Thanks, Ed."

"Hey! And if you don't want to dance anymore, don't, okay? Just do what you want to do and if your mother says no..." Edmund punched a fist in his palm. "tell her I'll go for her."

That made Edna smiled. The first real smile of the day.

"Thanks, Ed" She said giving him a hug. "She wasn't joking when she said she would call us like you, though." Edna said without separating.

"Now I feel the pressure." Edmund joked.

Edna giggled and then her eyes opened wide.

"I think I have something for you." She grabbed and opened her bag, she took her wallet out and opened it. Edmund saw her take a piece of paper out of it. "Here."

It was a photograph. A little one, large enough to fit on a wallet but a photograph, though.

That's when the tears started to shine in his eyes. Edna didn't have to tell her who the two people in the image were. The photograph seemed recent but he could recognize his Enola at any age.

"She hates it when I called her little" Edmund joked wholeheartedly " _Who's the little one now, Edmund?_ I bet she'd say..."

"Her old self would" Edna interrupted.

"Don't let her live like that, Ed." Edmund said slowly, shaking his head "Tell her, I said she can't stay behind a desk anymore. Tell her I-I…" He stuttered with tears rolling down his cheeks "I always knew her leg wasn't hurting. Tell her I too wanted to marry her. Please, Edna! Please…"

"I will, Ed" He had hold her up before, now she was the one doing it for him.

"Please! Tell her… tell her… tell her I had her crown ready, and it-it had rubies and jades please!" He begged between sobs, his face going down until it rested on the floor, Edna's hands on his arm. "Tell her I'm sorry I didn't find opal. Please!" Edna couldn't see him like that. Not after remembering all the talks she'd had with the boy before knowing the truth. How he was hoping to find her in Narnia, again.

"Your search..." Edna murmured in realization "You went looking for her."

"Please, please." Edmund was still sobbing, his face on the stone floor.

Edna couldn't leave him like that. So, she reunited all his forces and helped him to stand up and took him to the coach where he curled into a ball again. He wasn't stopping, his hand still around the little picture. Edna didn't know what to do. She was starting to freak out too. So, she ran out of her bedroom and knocked at Susan's. Soon, the Pevensie girl was following back to Edna's room. When they arrived, Edmund had fallen asleep between sobs.

"I'll tell Peter to come for him."

"No," Edna said abruptly "just let him rest."

Susan hesitated but due to the circumstances she listened to Edna.

That night Edmund slept on the couch while a half of Enola slept on the bed.


	19. Lucy woke up

11.

Lucy woke up knowing there was something going on in the castle, and there was. Aslan had asked Caspian to reunite all the Telmarine citizens at the main piazza.

Everyone was so busy that she had breakfast alone. The last time she had seen Peter and Susan they were with Aslan. Caspian was preparing the town meeting and she hadn't seen Edna and Edmund all morning.

She sighted.

Soon, everyone was summoned in the stables. They all were going to the meeting. Lucy was glad to see Edna doing fine. So was Edmund. It was Peter and Susan she was worried about. They didn't look good.

Their final destination was Beruna's main piazza. Just were the coronation had taken place. Aslan was already there, waiting for them, just like the whole town.

Then it all started happening too fast. A group of Telmarines going out of Narnia. Reepicheep offering a troop of mice as an example of Aslan's good will...

But Peter walked to the front and gave his sword to Caspian.

"I will look after it until you return" Lucy saw Caspian taking it.

"I'm afraid that's just it," her sister's voice raised. "We're not coming back"

Lucy felt the world disappearing below her. It couldn't be, Narnia was her home.

"We're not?" Lucy asked.

"You two are" Peter said looking at Lucy and Edmund. Just Lucy and Edmund. "At least I think he means you two" His eyes landed them on Edna. The blonde girl nodded and frowned.

"But why?" Lucy asked Aslan "Did they do something wrong?"

"Quite the opposite dear one. But all things have her time." The great lion answered "Your brother and sister have learned what they can from this world, now it's time for them to live on their own."

"Like my mother" Edna spoke up. "She learned what she needed for what was to come in her life." She said her the crease in her forehead slowly disappearing.

"The loss, the hurt, the maturity she faced here built her as the woman she once was." Aslan said to Edna "It's your duty now to help her return to all of it. As is your duty to build yourself based on everything you have personally faced in Narnia."

"Edna's not coming back?" Lucy asked too.

Another friend she would lose. Aslan didn't have to answer her. Edna had already understood.

"It's alright, Lu." Peter walked to his little sister "It's not how I thought it would be" He looked at Edna for a second "but it's alright. One day you'll see too." Then Peter walked to Edna.

They stood there in silence. It was time to say goodbye. Lucy saw his brother giving Edna his hand.

"We're never seeing each other again and you're giving me your hand?" Edna asked melancholically. She took a step and embraced Peter. Slowly, his brother put his arms around the blonde girl.

And just like that, Lucy saw his brother's walls of composure crumble down.

Peter never lost composure and seeing him doing so, broke his sister's heart. Lucy decided to go and say goodbye to her other friends just to not see them anymore.

* * *

On the other hand, Edmund didn't mind seeing.

It was a bit strange, he wasn't going to lie, seeing Peter saying goodbye to the girl his brother had fallen in love with, which in fact was the daughter of Edmund's ex-fiancé. But he didn't mind at all the affections of love in the piazza, to his right was Lucy hugging her Narnian friends, in the middle were Susan and Caspian talking and to his left and closer to him were Peter and Edna.

"I was thinking, maybe after we get back..." Edmund heard Peter hesitating "we could hang out sometime, maybe? I could go to Manchester and visit you"

Edna's smile faltered.

"In 1984?" Edna asked.

Peter just closed his eyes and shook his head. When he opened them they were shining with pain?

"You can always answer 'no'" Peter joked knowing perfectly what Edna had meant, that was the only way Enola could be Edna's mother. Peter pursed his lips "Okay, then."

"Hey," Edna took Peter's chin delicately and made him look at him. "I wish you had asked before" She said before raising on her tiptoes and giving his brother a sweet kiss on his cheek.

Edmund looked at Susan and Caspian. They were kissing, too.

"I'm sure when I'm older I'll understand" Lucy whispered by Edmund, looking at the two couples.

"I'm older and I don't think I want to understand" Edmund replied loud enough for Edna to hear. She turned at him and raised an eyebrow. Edmund just winked at her doing a gesture with the hand only Edna knew what meant, Edna mimicked him and then her attention was back at Peter.

"Just to make it clear, I did battle for at least 5 minutes" Edna said to Peter.

"No," Peter smiled "you battled for 15."

Edna smiled and then Peter was the one kissing her. He kissed her on the lips, this time with passion and need. A kiss that expressed one first "I love you" and one last "goodbye".

They separated slowly and Peter walked to them, not wanting to give Edna his back. Peter stood next to him and since Edmund would be the first one to go into the opened tree, that meant Peter would go second.

"Is it too soon to say a joke?" Edna called them.

The Pevensies turned at the girl who had stumbled into Narnia, scared to raise her voice up, and now didn't want to leave before cracking a joke.

Edmund slowly took the picture he had in his pocket, he didn't want it to disappear, just like all his clothes would to be replaced probably by his uniform.

"If you feel like visiting London's St. Jude's maternity hospital, eleventh floor, room 3b on September 5th, 1966, between 2:30 to 12:30, please let me know." She said raising both thumbs in the air. "I'll be the one in the cradle"

Susan and Lucy laughed. Edmund look at his brother, his eyes never leaving her. Edmund could tell what that look meant, he was trying to print her in his mind, to never forget her face.

"When is she going back?" Peter asked Aslan, still observing Edna.

Edmund look down at his hands, and slowly and carefully ripped the photograph in half.

"She'll go after you," Aslan answered and turned to Caspian "so be prepared, Queen Lucy, King Edmund and King Caspian, to receive in the future the Third Royal Lady of Narnia."

Edmund raised his gaze. Peter was now looking at the great lion. Lucy smiled in joy and Susan was still processing what that had meant. Edna blinked and slowly a smile was drawn on her face.

"Then I shall be waiting until that day." Edna nodded at Aslan and waved the Pevensies goodbye.

Edmund looked at his brother and saw one tiny little tear on the corner of his eye.

"Here" Edmund put something on Peter's hand. "Whatever you do, don't open your hand until we reach home"

Edmund didn't know Peter was leaving for the second time Narnia hearing those words.


	20. Thank you

12.

"Thank you" Edna said sincerely at Aslan before walking into the three.

Then she was in water, water surrounding her and it was dark again. Just like in her dreams but now she wasn't dreaming.

Still, she never felt scared. Even when she was running out of air. She just relaxed, let herself be, and soon she was moving with no effort. She saw she was moving towards a room, a room filled with white sheets. She realized then, she was inside the mirror, so she pushed hard against it, cracking it. She pushed again and the crack grew larger. She hit it and pushed harder and it broke, setting her free, out of the hard and cold she was into. The pieces of glass surrounding her on the old practice room's floor.

"Edna?" She heard someone on the door.

The light was turned on and she saw how the shards of glass were no longer on the floor and the mirror was intact. Her bag was beside her.

"Are you okay?" It was Alicia, the tan skinned woman with long black hear that worked in the building's reception.

"Yes, yes" Edna stood up from the floor and walked to her, but stopped before leaving.

She looked at Alicia. Even though she had seen her for many years, working in the building, never before she had seemed so familiar to Edna.

"I'm sorry. I was about to leave."

"You shouldn't work too hard" Alicia said with her strong foreign accent.

"I know." Edna smiled "I actually do now, that's why I'm going home" They had both started walking to the exit. "for good."

"Will you come tomorrow?" Alicia asked her out of hospitality.

"Actually, I'm not" Edna answered her. "Hey, didn't you have a kid?" She asked out of curiosity.

"Yes, he's so big now" Alicia said a hand on her chest. "I wished my husband could see him now."

Edna nodded.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." The lady said to her. "It was nice talking to you, Edna." Alicia opened the door for her. "I guess, I'll see you around."

The woman disappeared inside the building and Edna sighted as she walked to the automobile that had been waiting her for hours.

She needed to talk to her mother, she thought as she opened her hand and saw the crumpled piece of paper she had brought from Narnia. Her mother's letter. Yes, she needed to talk to her.

She yawned.

She would, first thing in the morning.


	21. Chicago, 2010

_Heyyyy. Here begins the third and last part of this story and I am WARNING you, in this part there will be A LOT of swearing in Italian(you'll eventually see why). So, yeah, You've been warned. It may not impact you as much, though, since most of it you won't understand it, but if you google it you might find translations a bit strong. If there is someone out there who understands Italian, good, but you've been warned too._

* * *

 _Chicago, 2010_

1.

"So, what you're saying is that not only I won't be going to Caitlin's birthday but also that I'll have to spend my weekend with you, and Phineas, and my _nonna_ …" The teenager leaning on the kitchen counter paused to give her speech a more dramatic ending "in a boat?"

"Ellie..." Her mother put the cloth she was using to clean the table down.

"It's Elle, mother. Elle." The teenager scowled, making her mother give her half a smile.

"You can visit Caitlin after we get back." Her mother took the milk carton on the table with a frown "Did you left this here?" The teenager raised her eyebrows, of course it had been her. "Anyways, you know how your grandma's been lately. I want us all to spend some time together." The woman said putting the carton inside the refrigerator and then looking at her hand watch.

"Is it safe to take a 70 something year old on a trip for a weekend overseas?" The girl grimaced.

Her mother sighted.

"Can you go and pick Phineas, please? I'll have guests down on the studio before 1 am. I need to look decent." The blonde woman walked to Elle again.

Elle took a look at her mother: her hair put up on a bun supported by a pair of chopsticks and a paint brush, her old T-shirt with paint stains and ripped at the bottom, and her jeans always the smallest size and still falling down her mother's sides. Also, the woman was barefoot.

"Jeez. I'll do it just because you look disgusting." Elle crossed her arms in disapproval.

"Thanks, Elle." Her mother walked to her, her hands raised as if she would try to grab her head and give her a kiss.

"Whatever" The teenager escaped before she fell in the clutches of her mother.

Elle walked to the door, but before she could open it her mother called again.

"And could you cook your brother for lunch after you two get back?"

Elle groaned before slamming the door, still she didn't leave, she stood outside for a pair of seconds and then opened the door again. Her face in amazement as she looked at her mother:

"Mom" she said in the sweetest voice she could come up with "I think I just went to Narnia."

The papers on the blonde woman fell to the floor as she turned to her daughter, her eyes wide opened.

"Really?" She asked wholeheartedly.

"No. I hate Narnia!" Elle responded before slamming the door again. As the teenager walked down the stairs she grinned. "She always falls for that."

* * *

"C'mon, kid. I don't have all day!" Elle yelled to her brother. In less than a minute the boy had reached her.

"Sorry, I was checking…checking a-a... test! Yes! With my math teacher, yes." He said as he ran after his sister who was leaving him behind on her bicycle. "She said I did great on my last exams. The best in the generation, she said. Hey...can I climb up?"

"No" Elle answered. She didn't want to carry her brother's weight around, it was enough with having to pick him up and cooking for him. "I don't understand why you just don't take the bus like the other kids."

"Mom doesn't like it. It's too..."

"It's too crowded, I know, I've been there, remember?" The girl shook her head "She never had a problem with it when I was in middle school. She's just spoiling you."

"Well," The boy had started to breath heavily "you're not asthmatic."

Elle grimaced. Excuses, excuses.

"C'mon." She stopped the bike, knowing her mother would not approve of finding his younger son hyperventilating. "Jump on"

* * *

"Tony's online!" A voice said aloud from the living room. Elle jumped out of her bed and ran out.

Phineas was already there, sitting by her mother on the couch. The woman had her laptop opened on her legs. Elle ran behind the couch just I time to see the video call starting. The session took a few seconds charging then in the screen Tony appeared.

"Sorry, guys. It may be a bit slow but the reception is not good here" The man in the screen excused himself. "Hey, everyone!" He waved at them through the camera.

"Hey, how's everything down there?" The blue-eyed woman asked.

"Everything's just fine, _mamma_. As usual. It's been a couple of hard days but finally I found some time to sleep." The 20-year-old man in the computer answered. "You better keep your stuff together now that you can, _bambini_. College is way worse than high school" Elle smiled at her older brother "or middle school." He added.

"Hey, Tony," Phineas exclaimed, which made Elle's lips purse in annoyance. Her older brother didn't have much time, he needed to sleep after all. But once the kid started talking he would never shut up. "I am doing amazing in my exams. Mom says I'll be able to go to Texas and study engineering, just like you."

"That'll be great. We could be roommates" The black-haired man joked.

In front of Elle, the mother of family put an arm around the youngest member.

"What about you, Elle?" Tony asked "How's your sabbatical semester?"

"Sabbatical?" Their mother asked. "She got suspended, Tony. Don't make her get so full of herself."

"I'm playing, _mamma_ " The man gave her that charming Italian smiled that always helped him get away from his mother's wrath. "So, how is it everything back home, Ellie? Are you being good to _mamma_?"

"Everything's fine." The teenager shrugged "I just found out today that I'm not going to Caitlin's this weekend and I'll have to spend it taking care of an old lady on the sea. So yeah, everything's fine. Oh" She added "and I picked Phineas up from school today and cooked for him, if that answers your second question. Unfortunately, I didn't mistake salt with arsenic…"

"Ellie..." Tony complained.

"Don't call her that." Her mother made fun of her "She's Elle, now."

"Well, that's my name, mother." Elle frowned in distaste "You gave it to me."

Tony sighted.

"Ellie, don't make it hard on _mamma_." Tony begged.

Elle scowled.

"Okay" She said.

The family of four stayed in silence for a few seconds.

"I wish you were here, Tony" Elle said, surprising both her mother and little brother, since she wasn't the most affectionate person.

"So do I, _sorella_." Tony said before taking a look at his hand watch "I better get going. With luck, I'll sleep 5 hours straight" Tony looked at the camera and waved "I love you, _famiglia_. And good luck with _la nonna_."

"Take care, baby." The mother said waving back.

"Bye, Toby!" Phineas put his face in front of the camera for a second.

" _Ciao, fratello_ " Elle sighted as the videocall ended, and walked back to her bedroom.

* * *

"I hate boats!" Elle groaned looking down at the sea.

"You hate everything!" Phineas murmured beside her rolling his eyes.

"Shut up, _stronzo_ " She said raising her hand as if she was about to hit him. She never did, of course, but she liked the way he would back up.

"Look at this, children," Her _nonna_ 's feeble voice was heard as she started moving near the railing on her wheelchair "what a sight! When you're older, you'll learn to appreciate the beauty behind all things." The cracking in her voice reminded Elle of the evil old queen from Snow White. "It reminds me of my childhood in Narnia..."

"There she goes again" Elle rolled her eyes.

That's what she hated the most about her _nonna_ 's visits.

When she was young, Elle didn't dislike the bedtime stories her mother told her every night about a magical land with some fantastic creatures, like minotaurs, centaurs, dwarfs, talking animals, kings and queens, and a great lion that protected all of them. But as she grew older it started to freak her out the way her mother actually thought the stories were real. And her _nonna_? She was worse! Elle totally disliked her because Elle was afraid that the old woman would eventually end up in a crazy house and she would take Elle's mother with her. Yeah, _la nonna_ had been a super important woman in her days, but now she was nothing but a watery-eyed old woman talking about child stories on a wheelchair with a lot of money in her bag.

"...the skies were a light blue most of the times, and it was reflected in the sea. So clean, so pure, you could even see the fish swimming around you..."

"Dumber?" Elle whispered at her brother "What's the probability of me being sent to jail after throwing a wheelchair through the board in which coincidentally my _nonna_ was sitting on?"

Phineas rolled his eyes and went to take her _nonna'_ s wheelchair. Great, he was sacrificing himself for Elle. Good kid.

"Maybe we should go with mom, Gran" Phineas said "You've been under the sun for too long"

Then they both left inside the main chambers.

"Bad kid" Elle growled.

* * *

One day had passed. One day! And if Elle had to listen the name "Narnia" again once more, she would have to kill someone. Her mother and _nonna_ acted like teenagers on a pajama party, but instead of talking about boys, they talked about a fictional place. Where did they got their imagination from?

"Okay, stop it." Elle said in the room, but she was ignored. "Stop it," She repeated "okay, SHUT UP!" She yelled.

The white-haired lady and her mother stopped talking and turned to her.

"Elle! Don't raise your voice like that!" Her mother scolded her.

"Then stop talking about your stupid Narnia!" She raised a hand "My patience, okay? It reached this high and you've totally destroyed it" The girl stood up and took her iPod. "I've had enough of you two, for a lifetime. I'm done here" She growled before storming out of the room, but Elle didn't leave. She stood there outside the door, listening.

"What's your excuse for that child now?" Elle's nonna said. The teenager outside the door rolled her eyes, of course they'd be talking about her.

Elle heard a sigh.

"She just misses her brother" Her mother answered. "You know he's her idol, her..."

"I understand that, Edna. But Tony's been gone for two years now, and she's been suspended twice, she's mean to Phineas and" The voice paused "to you."

"She's just 15, it's her rebellious stage." Elle nodded, not because what her mother was saying was true, but because he was defending her against her _nonna_.

"Well, yours sure came a bit later in life" She heard both women laugh. A sigh again "You've given her too much freedom."

"I just don't want her to feel like I did" Edna's voice became softer "Besides, I still hope that Narnia..."

There it was again. Elle clenched her teeth.

"Screw Narnia," She said as she walked out to the cold ocean wind "and screw you _nonna_ …"

".. _.open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind_..."

What was that? Elle had heard a voice, for sure.

"…i _n this darkness that you now you cannot fight_ …"

There it was again. She crossed her arms around her, covering herself from the chilling wind crawling up her spine. Someone was singing. She started walking towards the voice.

".. _.the darkness of the music of the night._.."

She had not seen him yet, yet she knew it was Phineas. Who else would it be?

"… _Let your mind start a journey to a strange new world_ …"

Elle scowled as soon as she saw him. She had never heard the boy sing. Great, not only was he smart, he could sing too. _Bravo_ , she thought in sarcasm.

".. _.leave all thoughts of the light you knew before_ …"

He was leaning on the metal chained railing and from what Elle saw, he had his earphones on.

She had walked out to stay away from her family and had found her young brother singing to the moon up in the night sky.

Just one day more and she'd be free, she remembered to herself. God, what did she do to deserve that crazy ass family?

"... _let your song take you were you long to be_ …" His voice was soft and disgustingly sweet and classy for Elle's ears who preferred rock groups like Green Day or Kiss, or country singers like Carrie Underwood or Tim McGraw.

"... _only then can you belong to me_ …"

An idea crossed Elle's mind. She smirked and started walking to Phineas. If his brother was feeling like Jack from Titanic, she had to pop his bubble before he started believing he was actually him. She couldn't stand one more crazy people in her family, because even if he was always respectful about the topic, Elle was certain that Phineas thought Narnia was real just as much as her. She needed to stop him before he started losing it too.

"... _floating, falling, sweet intoxication_ …"

She raised her hands in front of her.

"... _touch me, trust me, savor each sensation_ …"

It was only going to be a little joke.

"... _let the dream begin, let your darkest side give in to the power of the music that I write_..."

Her brother was so inspired, he had started to raise and move his arms. Who did he think he was? Shakespeare? She couldn't stop smirking. She already could see his scared face after what she'd do.

" _the power of the music of the ni._..AH!"

In her mind, Elle had thought about pushing his brother, just a little, to see him freak about falling into the dark night ocean. She never thought that the thick, big, metal chain in front of his brother would actually snap, making him fall into the darkness.

"Oh my god" She said calmly, confused, with her brows frowned. "I just threw by 14-year-old brother into the ocean" She raised an eyebrow.

She let it sink for a minute, approximately, she leaned on the now non-existing railing, looking down at the cold waters. They were calm, too calm, no Phineas in sight. Elle had swum on the sea, earlier that day, but it was dark now. "Where is him?" She murmured and gulped. "Should I call m..." Then she realized what she had done. "Oh, holy shit! I threw by brother into the ocean!" She screamed "AND HE DOESN'T SWIM!"

And she screamed.

"MOTHER!"

But her mother didn't seem to hear her. Where was the captain and the guy who helped him? What was she supposed to do?

"IDIOT!" She yelled down at the waters. It wasn't a big fall, but the ship wasn't small enough. What if the things behind the ship, those who moved it, catch her brother and made him a smashed potato? "PHINEAS!"

She was freaking out, and there were two options for what happened to people when they freaked out: their minds cleared up for the adrenaline rush and came up with brilliant, efficient ideas... or acted stupid. And she fell on the second type, so she acted stupidly.

She threw her iPod on the floor and jumped off. In a millisecond, all of her body had been engulfed by the cold, cold Lake Michigan waters. It wasn't the best moment to think about it but she remembered reading online an article about a white shark attack on that lake. But those thoughts faded away when she felt something on her hand. She cringed away scared of it being an algae or fish, but then she remembered, PHINEAS! She reached again, her eyes closed. It was so scary not to see, smell, taste or hear anything, but just be floating around with nothing to touch. And then, there it was again, that feeling, she reached even more and there was hair, and a head, a pair of shoulders, a body, PHINEAS! She held him by both shoulders and opened her eyes. The salt burned them, making it all blurry, not that there was a lot to see, being surrounding by bone-freezing dark waters. Yet, somehow, she was able to see her brother, his eyes half opened. She had him, she only had to swim up! But her lungs were already out of air, and then, the pinching. Was she being attacked by angry fish, or something? Maybe piranhas? She felt something pinching her everywhere, but she couldn't see anything but Phineas.

Her lungs had barely no air, when she heard a bell ringing out of the water. She couldn't care less about it, though, for she felt something dragging her towards the bottom of the ocean. Lower and lower, until she felt hers and Phineas body turning around. The ship and the air were now on their feet and the bottom of the ocean on their heads. They were going up, while going down, and the water started getting clearer, and there was light and Elle couldn't understand how it was possible but by going the opposite way they were going to the surface.

But they wouldn't make it. Phineas had been a lot of time under water, he wouldn't make it. So, she used her last amount of air to push up her brother, towards the now crystal-clear waters, while sending herself to the bottom, to the darkness.

The last thing she saw was pair of bodies diving into the water. One of them had grabbed her brother and the other one was swimming to her.

* * *

"There it is" The man that had just applied CPR at his sister backed down to let her breathe as she coughed out the water in her lungs.

Elle was lying on the wooden floor of the ship that had rescued them and reminded Phineas of a pirate ship like in Pirates of the Caribbean. Once she got her normal breathing back she looked at him.

"'Guess I didn't die." She muttered to herself.

Phineas gave her his hand but she didn't take it and stood up by herself.

"Where are we?" She asked to one in particular, looking at her surroundings. Phineas couldn't respond too. "Who are you?" She asked to the man with shoulder length hair, who had taken her out of the water. Phineas also looked at his sister observing the group of men around them.

"Let me introduce myself" The man, which Phineas recognized had a strong accent, like Tony's, took a step towards them. "King Caspian the X, of Narnia"

Phineas eyes opened wide. Narnia? He looked at his sister, she had raised an accusing finger at the man.

"Are you working for my _nonna_?" She asked.

"Pardon me, your what?" The man asked back in confusion.

"My grandmother!" She exclaimed "She paid you, didn't she?" The girl was starting to look like a maniac "Where are you, _nonna_?!" She yelled "I'm not falling for it, I'm tired of this sick game of yours!" She yelled looking at the group of man as if their grandmother would jump at them from behind of what seemed to look like the great vessel's crew. "MOTHER!"

Phineas couldn't resist anymore the glances they were receiving from the men, especially the one who had presented himself as king of Narnia. Phineas took a step at his sister and put a hand over her mouth, just for a few seconds before she pushed him away.

"Get off of me, idiot!" Only then she pointed at him. "Which reminds me...you! Are you her accomplice? Was it all prepared for you to fall off the ship?"

"I'm really sorry to interrupt, but who are you?" The man, Caspian, asked, before turning slightly to his side "Crew dismissed" And so, the crew left the three alone.

"Okay, stop it!" Elle raised her voice at Caspian "This isn't funny any...AH!" She screamed when a huge mouse appeared out of nowhere.

"Is there any problem, your majesty?"

"AH!" Elle jumped behind Phineas and over his shoulder she pointed at the mouse with a red feather on his head "A RAT! And it talks!"

"Hey!" In just a second, the mouse had climbed the ship's wooden railing and pointed back at his sister with a little sword that looked like a needle. "I haven't been in hundreds of battles to be called a rat by the likes of you, girl!"

"Phineas," Elle nudged him in the shoulder "it's talking to me!"

"Which means that we really are in Narnia!" Phineas realized opening his eyes and stretching his hand at Caspian.

"I'm Phineas, and this is..."

"Elle" His sister interrupted without taking her eyes out of the mouse.

Caspian took his hand still with a wondering eye.

"For what I've heard you're not from Narnia" The man said "Where are you from?"

Phineas turned at her sister who grimaced at him.

"I think..." Phineas turned back to the man "I think you knew our mother."


	22. And you pushed your brother

Warning: Elle's Italian swearing.

* * *

2.

"And you pushed your brother..." Caspian couldn't believe his ears. "out of the board?"

"It looked funnier in my mind" The soaking wet girl sitting in one of the cabin's chairs crossed her arms in front of her, pretending stoicism "Besides, he was not meant to fall. I- I didn't knew he was so stupid to actually do it." She said looking at the younger boy sitting beside her. "I didn't know we were jumping off to Narnia." She shook her head in anger. "I can't believe this sh..."

"What're we going to do now?" The boy, whose name Caspian had forgotten, asked him.

"What do you think we're doing now?" The black-haired girl asked him as if it was the dumbest thing to ask. "We're going home."

"But, Elle" The blonde boy asked. They didn't look alike for being siblings, Caspian thought "if we are here, this means everything mother said was true." He gave her a pointed look. "Everything."

The girl frowned at him in thought and then turned to Caspian.

"So, what now? Am I the Third Royal Lady of Narnia" she moved her fingers around making fun of the idea "or what?"

"Not until Aslan declares you so" Caspian answered in thought "But, you're not what I was expecting..."

"Jeez, thanks, dude." The girl sneered.

"What I mean is..." Caspian shook his head walking around the room "Three years ago, after everyone left" He remembered referring to the Telmarines serving his uncle, the Pevensies and Edna. "Aslan said that if the Pevensies ever returned they would do it before you..." Caspian pointed at the girl "and he never mentioned you" now he pointed at the boy.

"Doesn't that simply mean that the Pevensies" The boy asked obviously aware of who the mentioned were "are not coming back?"

Caspian stood there, speechless and defeated. His friends were not coming back. The girl smirked at him.

"I guess we're all you have," She almost seemed joyous of Caspian's misery "princey." She mocked.

Well, she actually wasn't what he had been expected, too.

"I guess so" Caspian muttered.

Later, at night, after the teenagers changed into dry clothes, Caspian was gazing at the girl from the helm's level, who was walking around, avoiding his crew (especially the animal creatures) and talking to herself. Phineas was standing next to him.

"Your sister is..." Caspian started remembering the dark glances the girl gave at him.

"One of a kind?" Phineas asked him smiling "I know." He shrugged "She may not be the best sister but..."

That! How could a "sister" push his younger brother from a moving ship knowing he doesn't swim? Phineas was hesitating.

"I believe you cannot find a way to justify her, sir"

"No, no. She just... I don't know. She's never liked me but she'd never try to kill me." Phineas joked hesitantly. "I'm just not her favorite, but Tony...you should meet Tony. The two of them look a lot alike."

Caspian smiled.

"So, Edna had a happily ever after." Caspian was glad to hear about his friend having a big family.

Phineas vacillated again.

"She's okay. She works a lot; she's a painter and has a studio on the first floor of our house." Phineas smiled "She's locally famous in Chicago for her paintings of natural landscapes," Phineas raised a brow "like forests." He started fidgeting with his fingers, just like Edna would do too, Caspian remembered. "She married Tony and Edna's father but got divorced just after Elle was born. So, she married mine and they had me, and then my father passed away too soon."

"Divorced?" Caspian asked him for the word seemed foreign.

"They separated and each one made their lives again, her father with Cindy, but mother's better alone. She says she can spend more time with us that way." Phineas looked at the sky "But now that I know all this is real, I guess all she said about High King Peter was real too. Maybe, mother's still in love with her teenage sweetheart."

Caspian smiled remembering all the time it took to reopen the west garden of his castle at Beruna, after Peter and Edna's mud fight.

"I'm sorry." Phineas said to him.

"Why?"

"Knowing everything that has happened around here from my mother's stories" he explained "I think I can tell how much you wanted your friends to return."

Caspian exhaled. He had forgotten about it for a second, the sorrow reawakening.

"Don't worry." Caspian muttered "Your sister's right." He started" I guess you're all I have now."

Caspian looked at the girl below again. He had decided to keep an eye on girl, because if both kids had ended in Narnia because of an almost deadly accident started by her, that meant she could be dangerous. Caspian wasn't worried for the crew or himself, but the girl could turn dangerous for her brother, again or for herself.

"Why do you think your sister doesn't like you?" Caspian asked.

"Well," Phineas sighted "for many reasons. But mainly, I think it's jealousy"

And Caspian knew perfectly what a jealous brother was capable of.

* * *

The next day, the Pevensies arrived. Great.

Elle had been sleeping until late, in Caspian's chambers, because the gentle king didn't want to let her sleep below deck with the rest of the male crew. Caspian had slept with them instead and had taken Phineas with him.

"Maybe I should stay with you, Elle." Phineas had offered her the night before.

"'You crazy?" She had responded "I ain't sharing the bed with you, retard"

And so, Caspian and Phineas got kicked out of the bedroom.

The sun was up in the sky when Phineas came running into the bedroom.

"The Pevensies arrived!" He had jumped on Elle's bedroom. "Wake up! The Pevensies arrived!"

Elle groaned under the sheets.

"Tell them I said hi and to not make noise." She said still her eyes closed. "Some people are trying to sleep."

She wasn't walking out of the bed. No, sir. So, Phineas did something he had never done before: he pushed her out of the bed.

"What the..." She yelled straightening herself up, before running after the little demon out of the room.

She didn't care how she looked, or if she had dry drool down her chin. She just kept the chase to the deck while Phineas kept yelling.

"Peace, Elle! Peace! You threw me out of the ship! Have mercy!"

Of course, the coward ran to the group were Caspian was. She never got to put her hands on Phineas, because Caspian caught her waist and hold her with an unnatural force. That or Elle's soccer practices had not made her strong enough. At least she was fast, she would've caught Phineas eventually.

"...and this is Elle." Caspian finished still grabbing the girl.

"Let me go, _sfigato_!" She kicked around.

"You're Edna's daughter!" A voice said which made Elle turned and find its owner.

It was a girl. She didn't look older than Phineas. Her skin was milky white and her auburn her and clear eyes highlighted the freckles on her face. She looked like a porcelain doll. Elle quickly tried to clean the drool she knew she probably had on her face.

"I wish I wasn't," Edna pursed her lips in annoyance "Lucy."

* * *

Edmund couldn't believe his eyes. They were back at Narnia! It was so good to be home. And not only that: Edna's children were there.

After Caspian welcomed them along with the Dawn Treader's crew and they met some of their old friends, like Reepicheep who had scared the hell out of his cousin Eustace, the king dropped the bomb.

"I'm so glad you're here. I had already convinced myself you weren't coming back" He had said.

"And why's that?" Lucy had frowned.

"Aslan said you'd arrive, if you ever did, after the future Third Royal Lady of Narnia did, which happened yesterday." He had explained.

"Edna's daughter is here?" Edmund asked in awe.

"Not only her." Caspian smiled "We've got some more company. His brother's here too. Edna's younger son, Phineas."

Then yelling and screaming were heard all around the ship.

"What's happening?" Eustace, Edmund and Lucy's snobbish cousin, asked in terror.

Caspian's hand instantly moved to the handle of his sword, but it soon relaxed.

"It's just Phineas." Caspian had told them as a blonde boy ran past them and hid behind Caspian.

The boy was being persecuted by a dark-haired girl, her hair going in every direction as if she had just gotten out of bed. Caspian hold her by the waist before she could keep running.

"...and this is Elle"

"Let me go, _sfigato_!" She was trying to set herself free, moving as if she was possessed.

Edmund's jaw dropped, not because he had understood what the girl had said, but because she looked and acted nothing like her mother. But he shrugged it off, not wanting to criticize the girl based on a first bad impression.

"You're Edna's daughter!" Lucy exclaimed by his side.

The girl stopped fighting Caspian and turned to Lucy. She stood frozen for some seconds and then started rubbing her cheeks with the sleeve of her shirt.

"I wish I wasn't" The girl took a whole glance at her sister "Lucy"

Then she looked at him. She had tanned skin, her eyes where pure black, just like her hair and her eyelashes almost reached her eyebrows.

" _Dark hair and a hand-me-down robe_?" The girl smirked " _You must be an_ Edmund."

Edmund raised his eyes in confusion when the blonde boy from before snickered. The girl took a step towards him, as if she had remembered that she had been chasing him.

"Easy!" Caspian told her, his hands still around her.

"Okay, okay, I swear I ain't killing him today" She pleaded, annoyed, still trying to free herself "just let me go!"

Caspian set her free and she stumbled towards Eustace. She eyed him after saving herself of falling to the wet and wooden floor.

"Oh, no!" The girl frowned and pointed at Eustace "You're blonde, and with the Pevensies" She cried "And blonde!"

"So, what?" Eustace's hands fled to his hair, afraid of finding something weird or disgusting.

"I said it with Rowland and I repeat it with you," She exclaimed in distaste, still pointing accusingly at his cousin "my mother has bad bad taste in men!"

"Elle, I don't think that's..." The brother of the girl started.

"Shut up, kid" The girl raised his hand without looking at his brother, her eyes still in Eustace. She put her hands on her hips. "Now, tell me, Peter..."

"That's not Peter, Elle" Caspian informed her, but she didn't move.

"Of course, I knew this wasn't Peter" She scoffed still observing at Eustace "I mean, just look at his eyebrows."

Edmund tried, seriously, he tried to hold on his laughter, but the insulted face Eustace made was too much for him. Edmund stop when Lucy nudged him.

"He is Eustace" Lucy explained the girl. "He came by accident, I think"

"Apparently, so did Phineas" Caspian put a hand on the blonde boy with clear blue eyes.

"Yeah, each one of us brought a _cesso_." The girl told Lucy.

" _Cesso_?" Edmund asked.

"Someone horrible to look at" Phineas answered him, shrugging as if it wasn't a big deal.

"Okay, can we stop with the introductions?" The girl who spoke with weird words raised her hands "Let's finish with this so I can go home" She barked before looking at Edmund. "Stop looking at me, boy!"

"Sorry," Edmund crossed his arms "it's just... you do look like your mother whenever she got angry."

The girl faked a smile, before rolling her eyes and crossing her arms too.

"Mother never gets angry." She spat.

"Follow me, there's so much to explain" Caspian said, apparently, having enough of the girl's bickering.

Lucy and Phineas were right behind his back, Edmund waited a minute only to drag Eustace with him and the whining girl ended up with them since she was too busy talking to herself.

"... _non capisci una fava_..." The girl kept repeating while she massaged her temples

"Let us not walk near her, cousin." Eustace muttered "She does not look sane enough to be with."

Edmund agreed.


	23. She was once again seated

_WARNING: more Italian swearing._

* * *

3.

She was once again seated in the captain's cabin, but now there were also 3 more kids.

She crossed her legs and raised her chin, while she saw the Pevensies finding old stuff of them and heard Caspian talking about giants, lands with weird names and missing lords with an open map on the table. A bald man that Elle recognized as the captain mentioned some nonsense about sea serpents before leaving.

What did she care? She needed to go back, she had a lot of important stuff to do back home... Well, not really. She didn't have school stuff and she certainly didn't have a part time job or something. Her days usually consisted in staying all afternoon inside her bedroom, watching movies or TV, being in her laptop, chatting with her not suspended high school friends and with her cousins from Italy, and at nights she would go to her soccer practices. The unfortunate days her mother would be busy, so Elle would have to go and pick Phineas at school and cook for him. Gosh, how she missed the fencing club, it was the perfect excuse to not cook for him.

Still, she hated every second spent in Narnia. It was a constant reminder that she had been wrong, and her mother and nonna right, all along. She looked at her brother, there he was smiling like an idiot, enchanted to be part of some adventure, always the good one.

God, she hated this. She hated it so much.

"...with her _nonna_ and..." Elle heard Phineas said.

"Hey! Don't call her that!" Elle raised her voice "You're not allowed to call her that" She pointed at him.

"I said _her nonna_ " Phineas quickly explained himself.

"Good. 'Cause that's what she is." Elle smirked "My _nonna_."

"What's a _nonna_?" The dark haired Pevensie asked.

"If I'm correct, that's grandmother in Italian." Eustace explained.

"Yeah," Elle stood up "my _nonna_ Enola"

Edmund looked at her, blinking repeatedly.

"Right." Edmund muttered "I-I had forgotten." He smiled "Of course she is your grandmother."

"My nonna" Elle repeated with superiority.

"Shouldn't she be the same as Phineas'?" Lucy sweetly asked.

Elle's lips pursed in dislike, Lucy was so nice Elle couldn't bring herself to be mean at her.

"She is." Elle blankly answered. "But he doesn't get to speak Italian, that's a thing of Tony and me."

"We have different fathers" Phineas explained. "Theirs is Gianni, mine was Rowland."

Edmund Pevensie raised an eyebrow and looked at Lucy.

"Edna's been busy. Peter's not going to like it." He joked.

"That's not funny" Elle muttered her arms still crossed "at all."

"Then, are you two Italian?" Lucy asked in amazement.

"Yes, I am Italian..." Elle said raising her chin.

"You've never even been to Italy." Phineas interrupted.

"So, what? I am all my father's, so yeah, more Italian than anything," Elle looked over her shoulder at his little brother and sneered: "German boy."

An uncomfortable silence filled the room and Elle smiled in satisfaction. His brother had lowered his head, not because he was ashamed or something, no, he would never. Elle knew he found her insults childish, but she also knew that he hated the rejection that he'd always received from her just because he was her half-brother.

Elle raised her gaze at the Pevensies who seemed in shock.

"Phineas, is your father a German?" Lucy asked.

"Oh!" Elle clapped "I remember! You're still in 1945." Elle raised her thumb. "A good year for the Allies countries and a bad one for ours dear Axis Powers" Elle explained as if she were a kindergarten teacher. "Hey, Pevensies didn't your father went to war?" She asked with fake innocence, enjoying every second of it. "Has he come home yet or was he one of the victims of Phineas' grandpa? He went to war but, you know, in the enemy side. Right Phineas?"

His brother stood up and walked out of the room in the blink of an eye. Elle laughed.

"Oh, man." She sighted with a smile "What a stronzo." She turned to the Pevensies "So, is he dead?" She asked.

Lucy looked at her, jaw dropped, her eyes showing nothing but hurt, before shaking her head and walking out the door.

"That was cruel, even for me." Eustace said before going out too.

Caspian had not understood what had just happened but knew that it had been nothing nice for Phineas and Lucy. So, he walked out, too.

"I've been where you are." Edmund was the only one left with her. "And I don't think I ever acted as rude as you."

Elle snorted.

"If I were you, I'd leave now." Elle told him, taking a seat once again, suddenly feeling rage because of how weak everyone was.

"I'm not leaving. I am Edmund, the Just," He said towering over her, his hands on both sides of the chairs "and you insulted my father."

" _Prepare to die_ " She faked a strong accent "You start sounding like Inigo Montoya." She rolled her eyes, her arms still crossed. "Go now, seriously. I like you, so go now." She threatened him, but he looked as serious as her.

He stayed strong. It was a challenge for her.

"What if I tell you that nonna Enola is so old that every time mother says your name she doesn't remember you anymore!"

Edmund's eyes fluttered, his arms letting go the chair. He gave a few steps back as Elle smirked and stood up. He was way taller than her, still she felt herself now towering over him.

"What if I tell you that nonna is so rich and in a daydream state all time that I'm only waiting to bury her so I can put all her money in my bank account?" She smirked.

He was hurt, definitely. He closed his eyes and walked in silent out of the room.

" _Sfigato_ " She muttered.

She had lied, all of it. Yeah, her nonna wasn't her favorite person in the world but she wasn't that crazy as to wish death to someone nor did she have a bank account.

Elle didn't realize that saying those things only to hurt others, even if it was a lie and something she didn't believed in, didn't make her a better person.

* * *

Phineas had been sitting alone for quite some time, near the figurehead of the ship, in silence. He didn't know how it had been before, during and after their mother's pregnancy of him, but as he started growing up and having an actual conscience and memory of what was happening around him, he couldn't remember a day in which Elle didn't seem to reject him in some way. She would always find a creative way to do it. Like whenever Tony played with the two of them, Tony and her would always be the Italian force that needed to save the orphan German boy. Or when she bought concert tickets to go and see Andrea Bocelli.

"Sorry, only got two." She would say to Phineas "You wouldn't understand the concert anyways."

Phineas could count every time their mother climbed to his room to console him after a fight with Elle.

"She just doesn't understand" Edna would rub his chest while the two of them rested in his bedroom. "that you're her brother as much as Tony." She would mutter to him.

But it would only make it worse with Elle, since in her eyes Phineas looked like their mother's favorite. Not that it mattered Elle. Elle hated everything and everyone, except Tony and her father. Sometimes he wondered if she hated their mother too.

"She just wants you, 'cause you remember her of that imaginary Narnian boy of hers" An 11 year old Elle would spat at him.

But Phineas had survived his childhood thanks to Tony and his mother.

Phineas couldn't believe how similar and different Tony and Elle were. Tony had always been nothing but a good brother to him. The charming walking stereotype of the typical Italian boy, their mother would say, just like his father. And yeah, Gianni was gone and so was Tony, but Tony was in college at Texas, while Gianni was in Italy with Cindy. If it weren't for the pictures Elle had on her bedroom, and the couple of times she saw her father in the year, Phineas thought that she wouldn't even recognize Gianni. Maybe that was the reason why Elle was so harsh with her mother too, or basically anyone who wasn't related to her father. Gianni was her maximum idol. Whenever he visited Elle and Tony or took them in a vacation they would return looking like kings, with dozens of cool, new things, like: new cellphones, new video games, a whole new wardrobe, even a new car for Tony.

"If you keep doing that, you'll end up spoiling them" Their mother would tell Gianni on the door. "They need to earn what they are given. You can't compensate all the time you don't give to them in the year with money."

Even though Phineas had never had a proper conversation with Gianni, the kid was happy for his siblings that he was still around, at least he was alive, unlike Phineas' father. He loved Rowland, of course, but didn't miss him as much as he would if he could remember him. He too only had pictures and a couple of videos of him. And like it's said: _you can't miss what you've never had_.

Phineas sighted. Life was hard and so was his sister.

And going back to her. Phineas wasn't mad and sad for what his sister had said in the cabin about his grandpa. The past was the past and Phineas had nothing to do with it. But knowing that she'd said what she had said back there, with the Pevensies and Caspian, only to try to humiliate him was what really had put him in the state he was in.

She was impossible.

"Hey, kid." The mouse with the sword, Reepicheep, had appeared by his side "Are you alright?"

Phineas quickly rubbed his eyes, trying to eliminate the tears that had been menacing to fall down his cheeks.

"Yeah, yes. Everything's..." He didn't know what to say so he chose to lie "fine."

"Well, you sure do not look fine." The mouse told him near his face "Do you want to talk?"

Phineas smiled but shook his head. Reep understood and only put a little hand on Phineas' head.

"Would you mind if I sing a song for you?"

The boy smiled again.

"I'd love to hear it"

* * *

 _A/N:About Elle's thoughts about Phineas' gran, I don't share them at all, but you know, she's stupid and childish so yeah. If it offends anyone send me a message and i'll check it up._


	24. Lucy had the loveliest talk

_WARNING: more Italian swearing..._

* * *

4.

Lucy had the loveliest talk she'd had in a while.

After calming her feelings down, from the morning's tension, she had find both Phineas and Reep on the front of the ship near the green and golden dragon that decorated the Dawn Treader, singing. They'd talked about the song that Reep had taught Phineas, about Aslan and his land, and their aspirations in life. While Reep wanted to see Aslan's country more than anything, Phineas wished for something Lucy wouldn't have thought him to wish.

"You want to be a singer?"

"Yes." The boy said his hairs glistening golden in the sunlight "Of classic music." He added

"I knew you had what it takes to be an artist as soon as I heard you sing" Reep exclaimed.

"Thanks, Reep." The boy smiled and Lucy frowned slightly, with a smile on her face.

Phineas left upper tusk was slightly crooked, but when he had smiled it gave him a mischievous-like smile. The sunlight was directly falling on his head, which made it shine as if it was made of golden strands. And his eyes, they looked so pure and happy, and so clear, lighter than the sky behind him. He looked at her and she, nervously, put a lock of her hair behind her ear.

"What kind of music you like?" Lucy asked still nervous but instantly shook her head "I mean, you already said you liked classic music, but...which songs are your favorites?"

"Actually," Phineas raised a finger "I brought my iPod and somehow it still works." Lucy didn't know what an iPod was but didn't want to interrupt him "Maybe I could show you some of the music I have in it," Show her music? How was he supposed to do that? Oh, right. He was from the future, Lucy remembered. "later. If you'd like, of course." He raised his eyebrows at her.

Lucy smiled.

"I'd love to!"

Somewhere down the road, Reep had left them alone, so they kept talking about different topics: Narnia, her life in Cambridge, his life in Florida, about his mother, among other things.

"Hey, do you remember what I said before about me wanting to be a singer?" The boy asked her and she nodded "Would you mind not telling my sister, please? I don't want to give her another reason to..."

"Be horrible with you?" Lucy finished "Don't worry, I wasn't exactly planning in going after your sister. She doesn't seem to like anyone..."

"You're so wrong there" A voice said over them.

They both turned their heads up and saw there the Italian girl hanging from a green rope, with a pose, and everything. Up there she looked more like a heroine than like a villain. Lucy thought that maybe the girl was the kind who like to show off.

"You know what?" The girl said making a weird face at no one in particular, her mouth pouting and her nostrils flaring. "I know I look hot up here, but it's pretty uncomfortable and hard."

"Then come down" Phineas told her, Lucy gave him a face but the boy shrugged with a smile.

"Only 'cause you insist." Elle mocked before sliding down the rope with elegance. Once her feet touched the ground she let the green rope go and groaned in pain "Stupid rope, I just burned my hands!" The girl literally put her hands on his brother's face "Look, Phineas! I'm dying!"

"At least you looked cool" The blue-eyed kid took her hands out of his face.

"I always do, sfigato." The girl snapped a finger before turning around, sending her hair at Phineas' face and walking away.

Lucy stood there with her eyebrows raised. Was that the same girl that had made her feel awful hours before? She didn't look evil at all, just annoying.

"Your sister is..." Lucy really had run out of words.

"...demonly weird." He nodded "Welcome to my world." He sighted.

Only then Lucy heard the clashing of the swords and the blood rushed inside her veins. Who were sparring? She wanted to see.

"Hey, Phineas, do you mind if I leave you now?" She asked him "I'd love to see what they're up to down there"

"Go ahead" The boy raised his hand inviting her to leave comfortably.

She smiled before turning away.

"Hey, Lu" She turned around "Call me, Phin" He said smiling.

There it was again, that smile.

Edmund couldn't believe that he wasn't rusty with his sword skills. Caspian and him had given a real show to the crew.

"All right," The captain yelled "back to work."

The crew had dispersed and someone had kindly given him a cup of water.

"Oh, thank you" Edmund said as he walked his way to Lucy. It was so good to be back. "Are you better?" He asked his sister as soon as he finished his water.

"What do you mean?" She asked with confusion "Oh, I remember." She shook her head "Gone and forgotten." She smiled.

"Good" Edmund smiled. "The spar did some good to me too" he pressed his lips together.

"Just..." Lucy shook her head" Let it go, okay?" She touched his arm "She'll come around." Lucy raised her eyebrows "She has to. I don't think she'll earn her title from Aslan if she keeps up with that attitude..." Lucy crossed her arms "She doesn't seem to like anyone, not even her brother..."

"There you go again with that." A voice said over them.

Edmund raised his gaze and there she was the girl they had just been talking about. She was hanging from a rope. Literally hanging. She wasn't supporting her weight with the hands, no. She had literally hanged herself from around her hips and was looking at the both of them with her arms crossed, looking like an avenger floating angel.

"You think I don't like anybody?" The girl asked his sister. "Well I like that new girl from YouTube, the one with the song about California and girls and candy everywhere, yeah, I kinda like her." The girl made a weird face and nodded.

Edmund didn't understand a word but even though he had wanted to strangle the girl earlier in the morning, he was fighting back a laugh because of that funny face she was making.

"Doesn't that hurt more than your hands did?" Lucy pointed at the rope around the girl's waist.

"Oh, yeah." The girl nodded "It's killing me, but hey..." The girl shrugged before moving her head, making all of her hair flying around as if she was some kind of actress. "I look awesome up here..."

"Why do you keep climbing up there anyways?" Lucy asked her.

"'Cause I can hear all the _merda_ people talk about me from up here" Edmund didn't know what _merda_ meant, but he knew it was nothing good because of the way the girl had raised her eyebrows at her sister. "Besides," The girl let herself fall totally, like a puppet, only sustained by a string "I feel like a gypsy. Like some kind of Shakira" She suddenly raised and put a hand on the rope "but cooler."

"Elle!" Phineas was walking down the stairs nearest to them. "Not again!"

"I'm leaving." The girl scowled "There's nothing else to do here." and she was about to climb up but looked at Lucy one last time "Hey, actually I do like someone from here!" She put a hand around her mouth "Did you see Caspian with that little ponytail?" She muttered loudly "He's such-a-cutie!" She grimaced in sarcasm before climbing up the foremast.

"Did she just said she liked Caspian?" Lucy asked in confusion at the air.

"I..." Edmund shrugged "I actually don't know what just happened."

"Don't worry." Phineas waved a hand "She gets a new crush every 5 minutes" Phineas looked up hoping his sister wasn't near.

"Isn't she afraid of heights?" Lucy asked him.

"I believe she does," Phineas answered "but she's more afraid of looking uncool." Phineas shook her head. "She's mean and then she acts dumb so people can't help but justify her. It's like a constant toxic relationship with her." He sighted.

"What a strange girl." Edmund shook his head "How is she so good at climbing and making knots?

"Best Daffodil Girl Scout 3 years in a row" Phineas answered his eyes still up in the sails.

Both Pevensies and Phin sighted at the same time.

"Edmund," Lucy suddenly remembered "Do you think if we keep sailing to the end of the world, we just...tip off the edge?"

* * *

"Come one, Elle." Caspian was looking at her "Say it."

She rolled her eyes.

"Okay. I'm not playing around the sails again, okay?" She scowled. "First thing I like about being in Narnia and you just take it away. Great." She sent eye daggers as he walked towards the ship's stern. "I hate Narnia" She muttered to herself.

"Good, thank you."

"Hey!" She walked after him. "Where are we going? Hey, hey..." But he wouldn't stop walking "Hey!"

He turned around suddenly and raised his hands to his hair.

"What?!" He said behind his teeth.

"Where are we going?" She simply asked.

"That's what I was about to see, now if you'll excuse me." He turned around and kept walking.

"May I see it too?" Elle asked behind him.

He sighted as he arrived with Captain Drinian. They had finally reached the Lone Islands. He saw through the telescope and passed it to Edmund. There was no Narnian flag in sight which meant trouble.

"Hey!" Caspian heard a voice complaining. "Caspian said I could watch too!" The king looked at the girl fighting with Edmund for the telescope.

"I didn't say that but let her take a look" Caspian shrugged and looked at the island again.

Then Caspian heard the girl gasping. He turned around and Elle and Ed were wide opened looking down at the water.

"Tell me you didn't." Caspian closed his eyes in annoyance and looked at Elle.

"Why are you automatically looking at me?!" She gave him a dirty look. "Was it expensive?"

Drinian had already called someone to go and save it but Caspian raised a hand.

"Just leave it." He took the bridge of his nose. "Let's focus on this" He pointed at the island.

"I say we prepare a landing party" Edmund commanded. "Drinian?"

"Forgive me, your majesty." The captain answered "But the chain of command starts with King Caspian on this ship."

"Oh," Edmund flinched "right"

"We use rowboats. Drinian, pick some men and come on shore." Caspian commanded before walking to Tavros.

" Tssss..." Caspian heard behind him.

"What?" Edmund asked "What's that?"

"That, my friend," Elle's voice started "was the cruel sound of burn."

"So funny." Edmund replied sarcastically.

Caspian looked over his shoulder.

"Oh, I wasn't trying to be funny" Elle had her arm around Edmund's shoulder. "You're not gonna start crying, right?"

Edmund snorted at her and walked away, passing by Caspian.

"Hey, wait. I'm not done with you!" Elle walked after Edmund.

Caspian frowned as she saw her disappear after Edmund.


	25. There's no way in heaven I'm going

5.

"There's no way in heaven I'm going to that God forsaken, abandoned and dirty Island" She had said many, many hours ago.

Everyone had left. Well, not everyone. Some people had to stay on the ship to take care of it, but everyone she talked to were gone. She sighted laying on her back over the wooden floor.

She had finally accepted that she was indeed in Narnia, that she wasn't dreaming, she wasn't drunk (not that she ever had before. She was still underage), she had not been drugged and she wasn't in a hidden camera TV show or in a prank of Ellen.

"Ellen only pranks important people, Elle." She had said to herself before "You're not important at all."

God, she was so bored. They had left when the sun was still in the sky, it had already disappeared and she had gone to sleep, but had woken up really early in the morning unable to keep doing it.

Why weren't they back? She didn't have anyone to talk to except for the bald captain, and the rat with didn't have anything to do. She had actually liked exploring the mast and now she wasn't allowed to be up there. She wasn't a little girl. Who did Caspian think he was? Oh, right. The King.

She hated Narnia, seriously.

Elle stood up her bed and walked outside. The sun was barely a line of light in the horizon. She looked over the railing at the island where his brother probably was playing the hero.

" _Sfigato_." She muttered "If they get into a fight, he ain't coming out alive…"

She hammered her hand nails over the railing in thought. If something happened to Phineas while being in Narnia, if she returned home alone what would her mother do to her?

Elle went poker-faced. Not caring if anyone was seeing, she climbed up the railing and jumped off.

"Bad idea, bad idea!" She said as she started moving. "C-c-cold. It's not supposed to be cold. This place is a desert." She started swimming to the island. "I hope there are no sharks in Narnia." But then she remembered Drinian and his sea serpents. "Holy shit!" She muttered, swimming more quickly.

But it was too far, she wasn't even halfway there. God, she hated Narnia and her easy-to-swim-looking seas. She kept going when she noticed boats coming at her way. Great, she'd be rescued.

"Hey!" She tried catching her attention "Help!" She exclaimed but stopped insisting because she notice the looks of terror in the people's faces. Then they started screaming.

"What? What?" Elle started freaking out. Why were they screaming? At least they were on a boat!

Elle turned around and saw a green mist coming at her way.

"Holy _merda_!" She exclaimed before turning around and swimming as fast as she could. But it wouldn't be enough, for the most was almost touching her. She raised a hand over the water as if wanting to physically stop the green smoke monster. She closed her eyes, her breath heavy and her heart thumping a thousand per second. She stood there, her legs kicking under her to keep her afloat and then she realized: the smoke was going over the water. So, she took a deep breath and submerged herself. And she stayed there, under the water, for almost a minute! Usually she only could manage around 49 seconds under water but her scare of the green mist was too much. She was running out of air and she couldn't keep going. She took her face out of the water and...

She was alone.

Literally, all the people that had been on the boats had disappeared. The boats were still there but the people were gone.

She started swimming again and passed by the boats.

"I ain't getting on one of them." She muttered "No, sir."

It took her around 20 more minutes to reach the mini port with the wooden boats. As soon as she touched the rock ground she let herself rest there backwards, her back facing the sky.

"You! The rat girl!" An annoying voice called her out of her resting. She raised leaning on her elbows and saw a boat arriving at shore. There was Drinian and Reepicheep, and many more Narnians.

"If you wanted to come you should've just asked," The mouse said jumping off the boat and landing by her "we were coming anyway."

"Are you saying I just spend 40 minutes of my life fighting a green smoke and swimming the hell out of me when I could have just come with you on a boat?" The soaking wet girl asked him.

"That is certainly what I am saying." The mouse nodded.

Elle groaned and let her head fall on the rock ground a bit too hard.

* * *

What would happen to Elle if he never returned with her, if he never went back home? That same day, Phineas had been thinking in the morning after spending all night in a cold cell with Edmund and Caspian. They had found one of the lords and seen what the green mist had done with the Lone Islands. But Phineas' head had been somewhere in the middle of being with them and being with his sister.

What if he died in Narnia and she went back home alone? He hadn't thought about that since their arrival the day before. But now...

He couldn't help but thing in two scenarios.

In one Elle would go out of the water and their mother and grandmother would be there, waiting for them. But Elle would say she had been to Narnia and that he, Phineas wasn't coming back. His mother wouldn't believe it, since she'd been lied before by Elle about going to Narnia, and she would accuse her of drowning him, then send her to a mental hospital. In the second and most probable to happen scenario, it would happen just the same, but it would end up with their mother hiding what she thought was Elle's crime. Elle would continue with her life, but their mother would cry whenever she saw her by remembering what she thought Elle had done and that she couldn't tell to protect her only daughter.

Phineas sighted.

He wasn't being killed, just sold. But he'd almost won a dagger to the throat the day before, after they found the book with all the slave registers. Phineas trusted Caspian, even in the little time they had met, and knew that as a King he'd found a way of get them out. But what if the only way was fighting their way out?

Phineas gulped.

Yeah, he was thin but not because of exercise, not because he was fit. He had a love-hate relationship with the only sports he liked, like football or box, because of his asthma. Even running sometimes was too much for him. He knew he had to be careful, now that his inhalator wasn't working. How could a high-tech music player work after being thrown into the water but not a life saving device? He couldn't understand Narnia's physics, still he wouldn't dare to complain. He had actually liked being in Narnia, that until they were captured.

Soon, they were dragged out of the cell. He saw in the distance Lucy had just been sold to some old man. Phineas grimaced and looked at Caspian. Where was the rescue party he had been talking about?

But just as he thought that, dozens of men took off the hoodie that had been hiding their faces. Among them, Phineas saw Reep, Drinian, and Elle.

"For Narnia!" The men shouted taking his swords out "For Aslan" some others shouted.

"For John Lennon…" Phineas' sister shouted awkwardly before running to him.

Phineas eyes opened wide when he saw her raising her sword high to him. And just as he closed his eyes waiting the end he heard a clanking sound. The chain between the clutches on his hands broke drown, giving him more mobility.

"C'mon, stupid!" Her sister dragged him after him. They jumped and zigzag through the battle field, until they reached what looked like a big chest. "Get inside!" She yelled at him.

"You know I can't be in too narrow spaces!" He yelled back, nervously.

She opened the chest and threw him inside, then she stepped inside too and stopped the lid before it could totally close.

They were watching everything through a narrow line of light.

"What are you doing here?" Phineas asked taking deep breaths trying to calm his respiration. Now was not the time to have an asthma attack. "I thought you were on the Dawn Treader"

"So did I" She answered "Then I asked myself what would happen if you didn't make it home. I saw the two sides of the penny: me in a nut house, or my mother emo version." Elle faked a shiver and Phineas smiled remembering he had thought the same earlier that day. He frowned, though, when he felt her wet trousers and shirt. "Elle, why're you..."

"Long story made short" She answered still spying through the narrow opening. "I swam my way here and fought a green smoke monster. You can thank me later, I'm busy watching Caspian being so sassy with his sword."

Phineas giggled and peered too.

"You should be out there fighting." Phineas said "You're good with the sword" He remembered the fencing tournaments of Elle's high school.

Their mother had been so proud when Elle joined the fencing club of her high school.

"In my times in Narnia, I regretted not knowing how to use a sword" Their mother had said "But you'll be prepared when your time comes."

"You know what? I'm going right now to unsubscribe myself" Elle had walked out of the room.

But she didn't quit the club. Phineas could tell she liked it as much as soccer. He also knew that one of the reasons why she had been moody lately was because she had not only been suspended of her regular classes but from the fencing team too. Although it didn't entirely justify her mood, she was always mean when she wasn't out with her friends.

"Nah," She replied her eyes narrowed "back home I spar against teenagers taking out their frustration. These dudes could actually kill me," She looked at him, grimacing "what do you think mother would do to you if I don't come back?"

Phineas actually thought about it. He would say he went to Narnia and Elle had perished in the way, their mother would mourn of course, but she would believe him.

"You know what? Never mind" Elle turned to peer again, the same scenario in her mind.


	26. I hope that wasn't British Consul

6.

"I hope that wasn't British consul" Eustace Scrubb whimpered looking down at the water. But 5 seconds after that he was not alone anymore. The crew of that bloody ship of his cousins arrived.

"Hey, I was just…" Eustace scratched his head "readying the boat for you, people."

"Sure," Edmund walked to the front "you were probably escaping" he added in sarcasm.

Eustace ignored him. His cousin was a bonehead after all. But he remembered the unconscious man that had fell to the water after being knocked out by him. What if he drowned?

As the crew came closer he started moving his hands and pointing his fingers at the waters.

"I think there's someone down there" Eustace informed.

"Let me" The annoying girl that was always parading around the ship took a step to the floor "I'm already wet" She scowled before jumping into the water. "Holy cow, it's heavier that I'd thought!" She exclaimed as she dragged the man out of the shallow waters. She got assisted by his cousin Edmund and they left the man resting on the rock floor.

"He's one of the slave traders" Edmund said "Let's just leave him there,"

The girl just ignored him, it didn't seem like she had been planning to take the unconscious man somewhere else, anyway.

Eustace was trapped in a bottle with his cousins, the two interracial siblings and the so-called king, whose long hair looked ridiculous on Eustace eyes.

"Why were you wet before?" Eustace felt the necessity to ask the raven-haired girl.

The girl turned to him, took a whole look at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you talking to me," she scowled "brows? Don't talk to me."

Eustace face contorted, stupefied.

"That's not very civil and ladylike from your part!" He exclaimed.

"What do I care?" She leaned at him with a dangerous face "It's clear to everyone's eyes I'm no lady!" She leaned back again, crossing her arms in front of her, rocking the boat with a bit of force.

What a temper! Eustace thought. He had tried, for once, to have a decent conversation and he had not only received a rude answer, but he had also ended up insulted.

"That's ironic, since, you know" Edmund shrugged "when your mother came to Narnia, all she could think about was acting like a lady..."

"That changed after some time, though" Lucy interrupted with a smile.

"Well, I'm not my mother" The mean girl stated "nor Enola."

That left everyone in silence. They arrived at the ship when the sky had started turning orange.

"I guess we'll have to make some sleeping arrangements" Caspian took the attention of the 5 teenagers. Well, 4 teenagers and the mean, childish, physically matured girl constantly grimacing at the world, Eustace thought.

"Please, don't tell me I'll have to share the bed."

The mean, childish, physically matured girl constantly grimacing at the world, let her arms fall down to her sides after being crossed for some time, and asked with wide opened eyes at Caspian.

"You know what? As long as it's not with Gustave I'm okay" She relaxed.

"It's Eustace!" The blonde cousin of the Pevensies exclaimed like a brat.

"Whatever."

"Elle, you'll be sharing it with Lucy, actually" Caspian explained.

Lucy's eyes opened wide in fear, while Elle nodded her arms crossed again.

"Forget it. I take Gustave back."

"It's Eustace!" He shouted.

* * *

Lucy had already turned for the third time on the bed, but she couldn't sleep knowing who was sleeping behind her.

It wasn't that she was afraid, no. Lucy had already realized that the girl in question wasn't evil like she'd thought in their first encounter. Elle was just mean and annoying, wanting to be always right and for things to be done just as she wished; that's how the girl was in Lucy's eyes. But she couldn't be totally unfair and not highlight Elle's best attributes too.

Elle, Lucy thought, had a hidden sense of responsibility about her brother Phin, why would she jump off a ship two times, already, only to get to him, otherwise? Elle also had a bizarre sense of humor, accompanied by the silly faces she made, that would come out to the light in the weirdest and most unexpected moments. She never stayed quiet for more than a minute, even when she was alone Lucy had seen her talking to herself.

And then there was also her beauty. Lucy would never admit it but she felt kind of jealous whenever the girl passed by and all the men's eyes flickered for a second at Elle, before realizing who it was and looking away. Elle wasn't a classic beauty like Susan, or Edna, or even Enola. She was an exotic beauty with bronzed skin, dark wavy hair and eyes, wide hips and (Lucy would thing embarrassed) voluptuous chest for a 16 year old. She was already a woman physically, but still a child psychologically. Yeah, Lucy was a bit jealous. Why was every woman around her an intoxicating pretty lady?

"Okay, what is it?" Elle sat up on the bed behind Lucy's back. "I don't think that I'll be sleeping tonight if you keep moving around in the damned bed."

Lucy looked at her over her shoulder.

"It's nothing, I was just thinking."

Elle sighted and fell on the bed again, her back looking at the ceiling instead than the right side of the bed.

"About what?" The annoyed voice of Elle was heard from behind. Lucy turned and look at the ceiling to.

"About many things. My friends, my sister..."

"Susan?" Elle asked and then groaned "Men! Out of the four of you she always sounded like the most logical one." She tsked "I would've rather meet her than Gustave"

"It's Eustace, actually" Lucy corrected, uncomfortably.

"Yeah, I know" Elle smiled "It's just funny to see him get all angry, isn't it?"

Lucy smiled.

"I guess so"

"Hey," The older girl frowned "how old is Edmund by the way?"

Lucy frowned. Why would she be interested in that.

"He recently turned 16." Lucy answered "Why?"

"Mmm, I don't know." Elle made a devilishly smile "Just wondering."

"You're not falling for him or something, right?" Lucy remembered Phineas saying his sister fell for a different boy every 5 minutes.

Elle snorted.

"Pu-lease! I'd never!" The girl shivered "That'd be... weird. The dude was about to marry my nonna."

Lucy smiled, remembering the old days in Cair Paravel, the swings Peter had asked for, just for En and her, all the balls at Archenland, the years she had spent traveling with her…

"How is she?"

Lucy could still remember as if it had just passed a day and not 3 years, the day she had been woken up by Enola, jumping on Lucy's bed and calling her, almost yelling at her, about a white stag and how Lucy needed to woke up immediately.

"Old" Elle answered coldly "White hair, bottle glasses, wrinkled face and hands." She crossed her arms over her "She's most of the time in her wheelchair but at times she walks around."

Lucy's smiled faltered. She always forgot the part where her friend was already an old lady.

"She's been sick lately, but hey" Elle shrugged "that's life, right?"

"You've never lose someone important, have you?" Lucy asked her, a bit disappointed for the older girl's disinterest in Enola's health.

"I, actually have," Elle nodded "Edna's father, my _nonno_. He passed away a few years ago; it's been the only time I've seen my mother crying, actually. Not even when she divorced my dad she did it."

"I meant someone you personally and hugely care about" Lucy could tell Edna wasn't too close to her deceased grandpa.

"Thank god no!" Elle's nose wrinkled "I mean, I rarely see my dad but at least he's alive."

Lucy thought of her own father, he was safe in America, with her older siblings, thank god. Things were looking up for the Allies and for Lucy's family too. Well, except for Edmund and her who had to stay with their aunt Alberta.

The room fell into an awkward silence for a few minutes.

"Are you asleep?" Elle asked.

"No."

"Me neither."

Lucy smiled at the turn of the conversation.

Both girls sighted at the same time.

"Where do you think we're going now?" She asked

"I guess we'll keep moving east... and try to find the lords."

The girl moved uncomfortably by Lucy's side.

"I just want to go home" She wasn't bickering anymore, Lucy noticed. She had sounded sincere.

"But, why?" Lucy turned to her right at leaned on her elbow "Don't you find exciting coming to the land two generations before you came to and had great adventures?" Lucy could understand that the girl was a bit...especial, and had a temper but she couldn't understand her repulsion for everything Narnian.

Elle sighted and Lucy got surprised at hearing the voice that came out of her. Not a mocking voice, or sarcastic, or pretentious, or angry.

"I guess that at some point of my life I liked the stories my mother told about this place." The girl shrugged, her voice serious, calmed, hurted. "But I can't remember it. Ever since I have memory I've felt nothing but..." She paused and cleared her throat "Anyways, I just don't like it here, period. There's no internet, for starters, there's no music, no TV, no parties, and everyone speaks as if they're in the XVII century" She groaned "Thought, I must say I like the fashion."

Lucy smiled remembering a time in which Susan and her had talked about the beautiful dresses and Narnia and had thought about taking some for their mother.

"And don't get me started with food" The girl complained putting a hand over her belly "I haven't had a proper meal in ages. I mean, I guess it's healthier to have fruits and eggs for breakfast, but I miss my _Cheerios_ " She whined.

Lucy didn't know what _Cheerios_ were but she laughed at the attitude of the girl. Then Elle's stomach grumbled.

"Great" she muttered before jumping out of the bed.

"What is it?" Lucy asked her.

"I need to go and find some food" The girl just kept walking not turning back " _Ciao_ "


	27. Okay, stop it!

7.

"Okay, stop it!" Elle laughed her heart out "Stop it, stop it!" And then she screamed.

After leaving Lucy alone in Caspian's bedroom, she had wandered inside the ship, more specifically the under deck, where the food was stored. She had found a bag filled with fruit. She had been craving for something like a _twinkie_ or a muffin, but no. Narnia didn't have those pieces of heaven. It only had fruit.

Sighting, Elle took a pair of oranges and started peeling them as she walked out of the deck. She threw the peel overboard, not caring about pollution in Narnia. She ate the whole thing and before she arrived at the stern she was already peeling the second one. She hid it, inside the leather coat she had on, as soon as she saw Edmund sitting on the floor with that sword he had been given. She turned around and decided to walk back at the chamber where the other Pevensie was probably already asleep.

"Who's there?" Edmund called.

She chewed her bottom lip before turning around and walking to him.

"I am" She walked to him "Did I startled you?" He was about to answer "'cause I'm not apologizing."

He closed his mouth and smiled as he shook his head.

"Good" He returned to his task and Elle felt ignored.

"Did you hear what I said?"

"Oh, I did" He smiled, his eyes still in his sword.

"So?"

"So?" He repeated her question.

She opened her mouth to argue but close it after realizing she didn't have anything to say.

"Surprised?" Edmund asked her, eyes never leaving the sword.

"I just thought..." She frowned but shook her head "I just thought you were smarter than your cousin Mr. Brows" She added mockingly but soon realized that what she said had nothing to do with the situation. "But you're not, at all." She added awkwardly.

Edmund kept smiling to his sword, rubbing it, trying to take the tartar off of it.

"I guess you're right, then"

He kept working leaving her standing there.

Why wasn't he...acting like she had expected him to? She had thought that Edmund would always have something smart to say and it would allow her to come up with something sarcastic to say about it. He would stand his ground against her like had done the day before, when they had met...but now? He only had eyes for that stupid sword of his. Elle's teeth clenched in annoyance.

She stood in front of him, barely an inch apart and sat in front of him, invading his personal space.

"Okay, what's happening?" She asked him.

"Nothing's happening." He kept that stupid smile as he managed to take a tiny piece of tartar out of the sword. "Why would anything be happening?"

"You're acting weird and it's freaking me out" She explained getting more and more frustrated at the attention the boy gave to the weapon. "So, cut it out"

He just raised an eyebrow, but didn't answered.

"Rude! That's it!" She exclaimed before taking the sword out of his hands in the blink of an eye and putting it behind her.

He looked surprised and she raised her eyebrows. Finally, he raised his head, look her in the eye and took a deep breath.

"I've taken your measurement." He simply stated, shrugging.

"My measurement?" She gave him a dirty look.

"I've had experience with your family for some time now" His eyes narrowed as he explained "I already know how they work"

"They work?" Elle crunched her nose

"And it's been easier for me to study you in two days than when I was with Ed or En, El," He emphasized the way he had called her "because just as I told you, I've been where you are."

"Which is?" God, if looks could kill, he'd been long dead.

"Making smart remarks about everything everyone has to say. Making your life less miserable by making others as miserable as you."

Elle blinked several times, her mouth opened. How dared him? For starters, her life was not miserable at all and she had to inform him of that.

"My life is not miserable at all" She spat.

"That's not what your attitude says" Edmund crossed his arms "It seems to me that" he raised one finger "you hide after a national façade to feel like you actually belong into what you think represents and elite group just because your two favorite people in the world are in it," he raised another one "you dislike a brother because of all the differences you find between yourselves, which shows an inferiority complex and clearly jealousy," he raised a third one "you are unhappy with everything related to your mother, probably because of something you think she's done to you but for personally knowing your mother I know you're wrong" he had four fingers up "you have a strong character that hates being proven wrong, which explains your dislike for a place you'd always denied existed and faith proved you were actually the real wrong one" he extended his entire palm in front of her face "and you hide all that misery behind a mask filled with sarcasm and mockery" he lowered his hand "Still, unconsciously, you're even tired of yourself and that's why you keep appearing with the strangest actions, like acting silly after you've been rude just so people thing you're just spoiled or stupid and try to make them justify you, or like going after your brother, risking your life in the process, after being mean to him all day and being mean to him as soon as you find him, just so he, as the good person he is, can't help but keep respecting you as the older sister you are to him, because who should care if your sister is the worst type of person with you as long as she is there when you really need her?"

"Wow, wow." Elle raised her hands "Hang in there, Doctor House psychology version" She shook her head "You've been talking to Phineas, right?"

"I have, but that's not the point..."

"I'll tell you what's the point" She poked him, harshly on his chest "even if what you're saying is true, and I'm not saying it is, what does it have to do with you? What do you care?" She scowled, her nose inches away from his.

"I know I care about my sister and your brother" Edmund muttered with a frown "He's a good kid who doesn't deserve a fucked up sister like you."

Elle's jaw dropped, her breathing heavy. The orange inside her stomach made a 360° turn. He had cursed! She didn't know Edmund for more than two days but she knew he wasn't the kind that simply cursed around.

The worst part? He didn't look mad. On the contrary, he looked so relaxed and calmed.

Her eyes opened wide, she had never met anyone that not only had ignored her, read her and insulted her, but that also had hurted her in the process.

"What the hell?" She muttered to herself, moving backwards a bit using her arms.

"Now, may I have the sword back, please?" He asked him, respectfully, as if he hadn't just said she was fucked up.

Silently, still in shock, she gave him the sword.

"Thanks." He muttered before going back at his work.

But she didn't leave. She just sat there in silence, still not over what had happened, for what seemed to her like hours. And they were, actually. Eventually she leaned on the wooden railing behind her, hours later she laidback on the wooden floor. She had forgotten the hungry, the sleep, she just laid there on her back looking at the stars, feeling... disturbed.

Edmund had stayed, too. Less than some feet away. Around five hours had passed, with both of them silent when he finally spoke up.

"I'm sorry" He muttered taking her out of her trancelike state "I should've never said that"

She sat up, slowly. Not believing he had actually apologized.

Edmund was the Just King, if he had insulted her was because she had deserved it. Still, he had apologized, because he was that good. He couldn't insult a lady, Elle realized.

"Hey," She murmured "don't." Her lips trembled and Edmund seemed to notice because his eyes didn't leave her face. "I guess I deserved it." She gulped, her mouth still trembling.

Edmund frowned, stopping his work for a while.

"Are you fine?" He asked and she shivered before nodding.

"No one had ever said all those things to me" She looked at the sky, trying to contain the moisture that menaced with coming out her eyes. "Maybe you are smarter than Mr. Brows" She muttered looking away.

Elle pursed her lips, hating the way they were also menacing with involuntarily pouting.

"Oh, for Aslan" Edmund put the sword aside and moved nearer her. "Are you fine?"

"I am!" She exclaimed in dislike of the way his hand had touched her shoulder "Step away!" She shrugged his hand off.

Then Edmund started laughing, he did, and it left her more astonished than before.

"Why're you laughing?!" She asked, her face grimacing.

"I just..." He kept laughing "thought I had lost you there, but..." He pointed at her face "there you are again"

She touched her face and noticed what he meant. Her brows were furrowed and her lips pursed in annoyance. She shook her head and, slowly at first, smiled awkwardly.

"Years of practice I guess" She said.

He gave her a half-sided smile before taking the sword on his hands and starting scrubbing it again.

"So," She said trying to catch the dark-haired boy's attention again "you have experience with my family, huh?"

"Yeah," He took another piece of tartar "I may not be as good as Peter, observing people. But, yeah, I, uh, spent some time with your mother, for example." Edmund smiled and shook his head "She saw me at my worst" He raised his head and looked at the air, as if what had happened between her mother and him had just passed in front of his eyes. "I wouldn't blame her if in retrospective she ever laughed about me"

"She didn't" Elle replied, her voice coming out so smooth it even surprised her. She cleared her voice "I mean, she's always been too nice and proper to laugh at anybody" She added, trying to indirectly offend her mother, hence keeping her cool.

Edmund giggled and raised an eyebrow.

"That's because you never saw her with Peter." He told her "Those two were..." He shrugged "perfect. She would forget about everything when she was with him" He frowned in thought "and he'd always relax and save his High King attitude when she was with her." Edmund looked at her. "At least that's what I've been told. I didn't spend much time with them together. Just with your mother, before I left Beruna to..." He stopped himself mid-sentence and clearly, changed topics "Did you knew it was your mother the one who gave Peter the idea for Beruna's first battle?"

"I-I, uh" Elle stuttered, surprising herself since she rarely did. "Mother didn't tell us much about her time in Narnia, just the basics. Mostly she would talk about nonna's time in Narnia. I didn't know." Elle sat cross-legged and putting an elbow on one of her knees, she rested her chin on her hand. "How did she do it?"

"I wasn't there." Edmund had already left the sword forgotten "but Peter told me. He said that they had been talking a day before the attack. He had to come up with a plan, but he was too frustrated with many things" Edmund had started moving her hands in explanation "That's when Edna arrived, with her black set of glasses and everything, and I think that's the moment they really became friends. She calmed him down by speaking about En" Elle understood instantly who he meant "and then when she was about to leave she started telling him about a movie she had seen, about air forces and a war in the space..."

Elle's eyes opened in amazement. Had she meant...?

"...she made Peter come up with the brilliant idea of sending me first inside Beruna, because she had told him we needed someone agile to ease the beast from the inside. Like a man who skywalked in the movie she had seen"

"Oh, God!" Elle exclaimed before bursting into laughter. "She didn't!" She kept laughing.

Damn! She had such a cool mom...wait, what? Elle stopped laughing and shook her head.

"How did it all end?" Elle asked with a genuine smile.

Edmund hesitated.

"The plant was brilliant...those who carried it out weren't," He responded "including myself" He raised a hand taking blame.

"Don't worry, no one's as good as Luke Skywalker" Elle nodded "Believe," she pointed at herself "I've tried" She shivered "It was painful"

Edmund laughed at her face and then the both of them were laughing together.

"Those were good times with your mother" Edmund exhaled. "After we returned to London, the only thing Peter had of her was a picture. So, I developed a good skill imitating her, but it would only make Peter mad or more depressed" Edmund raised his brows.

"I gotta see that!" Elle exclaimed

"What?"

"Your imitation of her." She answered "Show it to me"

Edmund smiled and licked his lips before falling into a serious state: he sat straight, his arms on his sides joined by his hands under his rib cage. Then he started fidgeting with invisible glasses on his nose, then he started scratching his head...

IT WAS LITERALLY ELLE'S MOM!

She roared with laughter as he kept going now fidgeting with his own hands, and then he took the first thing he found, which was his knife, and moved it between his trembling fingers

Elle couldn't resist the burst of laughter coming out of her. She felt her belly would explode at any time.

"Okay, stop it!" Elle laughed her heart out "Stop it, stop it!" And then she screamed.

Only then he stopped and put a hand over her mouth. Now he was the one laughing.

"Why you scream like a girl?" He kept his hands on her.

"Mmmm girm" She said, hoping that Edmund had understood her message: ' _I am a girl'_.

"What's happening here?" A voice in front of them asked.

Edmund's hands fell from her mouth and Elle turned her head to find Caspian standing a meter away from them.

Elle looked at Edmund and raised her brows.

"Now, what?" She mouthed.


	28. Tell me more

8.

"Tell me more about my mother and Peter." The girl with the darkest eyes he had ever seen asked him.

After staying up most of the night and being discovered by Caspian, both'd had to leave to rest. And, coincidentally, both of them walked out of their resting places at the same time.

As soon as their eyes found each other they smiled, remembering the night they had shared. They met on the wooden railing of the second level near the prow. The entire ship could be seen from there.

Edmund noticed there was something different in the girl. First of all, she didn't look moody, which was saying much already. The constant scowl remained in her face but Edmund didn't feel as aggravated as he usually did when he looked at her. And third, she seemed interested in hearing stories of the short time her mother had been in Narnia.

"Mmm" Edmund's elbows rested over the railing just like hers "Your mother once tried to teach him how to dance ballet."

"Ballet?" Elle asked with confusion.

Edmund had been joking, and had waited a different reaction from her than he had gotten.

"You know, because she was a ballerina and all?" He explained.

Elle shook her head.

"Edna Taylor-Moore? A ballerina?" She frowned "Shut up!"

Edmund blinked several times, not understanding El.

"Didn't you..." Edmund started but soon he realized "Oh."

El danced her fingers over the railing in thought. Before she could say anything, Edmund's cousin ran out from the ship to the main deck followed by Reepicheep in his heels.

"What're they doing?" El muttered looking at the performance the two being with swords were given.

Edmund wasn't quick enough to stop her from walking down the stairs and taking a sword from a man in the way. Edmund followed her, just as she arrived in time to see Eustace falling to the floor.

Edmund saw the girl rolling her eyes in annoyance before leaning down and pulling up his cousin from an arm.

"What happened?" El asked the blonde kid.

"He said I stole an orange" Eustace pointed at Reep "I didn't."

El's scowl faltered, and hesitated a few seconds before turning at the mouse hanging from some ropes.

"Good match! I will make a swordsman of you yet." The mouse exclaimed at Eustace.

"Yes, well..." Eustace started

"You want to make him a swordsman?" Elle interrupted his cousin. Edmund wanted to meddle but preferred to stay out of the girl's wrath for a bit more. "Well, throwing him to a barrel's not doing the job, sir" She scowled at Reep.

"Perspectives" The mouse shrugged.

"Next time, pick on someone of your..." She paused in thought "experience."

"Then, I would never get some fun around here." The little swordsman replied before climbing up the ropes.

"Thanks." Eustace muttered her.

Her nose wrinkled.

"What did I tell you about talking to me, Gustave?" She hissed before giving one last look at Edmund and then walking away.

"Did she just stood up for me and then rejected my gratefulness?" Edmund's cousin beside him asked.

Edmund only shook his head before walking towards the commotion about a little girl coming out of a barrel.

* * *

Phineas had an iPod and she didn't. Why did he have an iPod and she didn't? Oh, right. She had thrown it away before jumping into the water before coming to Narnia. But why did his still work? It wasn't supposed to be waterproof. Oh, well. It would be literally like taking a lollipop from a baby.

"Hey, Phineas!"

The boy had been sitting on the stairs near the prow talking with Lucy about who knows what, but the two middle- schoolers were sharing earphones and seemed to be enjoying some music. Especially Lucy, who of course had never seen a music player in her life before.

Elle sighted, but, hey, it was his fault for being somewhere where she could see him enjoying music, while she was dying of boredom.

"What is it, Elle?" The boy asked looking at her.

"Give me your IPod" She demanded.

"Uh...excuse me?" Phineas frowned and so did Lucy.

"I said give me your iPod" She reaches her hand to him "C'mon kid, I don't have all day" She rolled her eyes.

"Uh..." Phineas hesitated. He shrugged at Lucy and took both earphones "okay."

And just like that it was hers. Finally, technology for her in Narnia! She walked down the stairs with her new iPod, proudly and sat on a wooden bench under the stairs. She was about to put on the second earphone when she heard.

"Why do you always do everything she asks you to do?" It was Lucy's voice.

Right, they were still up there and couldn't see Elle. Phineas sighted.

"It may sound weird or dumb, but..." He paused "when I was younger I always had this hope that if I did everything she wanted in the way she wanted it, maybe..." Elle could imagine his brother hesitating "maybe she'd eventually like me a little more."

Elle frowned.

"Of course, i soon realized that it was never going to happen, but... you know... It's more like an habit now."

Elle pulled the earphone she had just put on, grimacing with loathing, She stood up, looking at the iPod on his hand and sighted. She walked to the stairs again.

"Gosh, your taste in music is the worst!" Elle told his brother as soon as he noticed her "What a bunch of crap you call a playlist!" She threw it at him and Phineas catch it in the air.

Elle turned around and decided to go to the ship's stern.

Elle didn't notice the boy that had been standing on the wooden railing over the top of the stairs. Edmund had seen and heard everything, he even had seen her under the stairs; and even though he had frowned at the beginning of the scene, he ended up smiling watching Elle's actions.

* * *

Caspian was watching at the horizon from the Dawn Treader's stern. He was leaned on the left side of the head of the ship, thinking about was coming for them. He didn't notice he wasn't alone.

"Hey, Caspian..." He quickly recognized Elle's voice.

He turned around waiting to see her standing behind him, with that characteristic bothered face of hers. But there was no one. He turned at the sea again, thinking maybe he'd just imaged it.

"...would you say I make your life miserable?" There was that voice again, this time Caspian recognized where was it coming from.

Slowly he walked to the right side of the head of his ship. There she was, sitting on the edge of the ship, her arms crossed in front of her, her eyes in the horizon too. But she didn't seem bad mannered as she usually did, she looked upset.

"Uh, miserable is not exactly the word" He answered "unless you fall from there. Then it will be if I have to jump into the cold waters to retrieve you." He joked but the girl's forehead remained frowning. "Why'd you ask?"

"Someone recently told me I like making other's lives miserable" She answered

"Edmund?"

"Yep"

Caspian nodded, remembering that same morning, when the sky was still dark and everyone were still asleep. He'd found both teenagers sitting near where Caspian and Elle were at that moment, sitting on the floor.

Caspian woke up early every day, he couldn't help it since he had become king. He slept too little, worrying the little he managed to sleep, about his people and country. He had a big responsibility on his shoulders for a 21-year-old.

He had been walking around the ship when he heard a girl voice screaming...or maybe it was Eustace. Anyways, he ran to the source and found

Edmund's hands around the girl's mouth, he left her go when he saw Caspian.

"Are you okay?" Caspian asked them.

"Yeah, I just tripled with Ed and yeah, I screamed" The girl clearly lied.

"It's too early to be awake, you should go and rest some more" Caspian told them and soon both kids leave to rest.

"Even if you did" Caspian started not wanting to admit openly that the girl was actually impossible around people like his crew, Eustace and Phineas "you can simply change what you don't like about your attitude" He shrugged, and she scoffed " Is that why you are here alone?"

"Firstly, it ain't that easy to change yourself" She pointed out "And no, I came here because I wanted to be alone" She looked down at the waters "There is... someone I miss" She confessed.

"Is that it?" Caspian leaned on the railing beside her "You'll return home soon"

Elle sighted.

"What if I don't?" She muttered "We're talking about the same lion who took my _nonna_ away from her fiancée on the same day of their wedding, who took my mother away of her friends and her teenage lovebird..." She shook her head "if he took them away from what they loved... what if, what if he takes me away from where I want to be?"

Caspian nodded, understanding her doubts about Aslan's ways. He had also doubted him, once, when Susan said she wasn't coming back to Narnia, to Caspian.

"If there's something I know..." Caspian muttered "Aslan's decisions always come along with a lesson." She looked at him. "Even when it doesn't seem like that at the moment"

Elle gave her a halfhearted smile, the first one she had given him.

"Says the voice of experience" She put a lock of hair behind her ear. "Who did you lose?"

Caspian opened his mouth to answer her but nothing came out of it. He hesitated, knowing that maybe if he confessed to the girl she'd find a way to make fun at him. He shook his head and tried giving Elle a shot.

"High Queen Susan." He smiled at the horizon "I gave her my heart, and a year after she left I still thought she had took it with her." He paused "But the loss I experienced helped me understand that I couldn't lose anything anymore: my kingdom, my throne, my people..."

When he looked at Elle, her face wasn't mockingly looking back at him. Caspian felt that, somehow, she had understood and felt too every single word he had said, looking at the hurt in her face.

"You really are a _principe azurro_ , aren't you?" She joked "I miss my brother..." A sight came out of her lips "and father. I wish I could go and live with him in Italy" She gulped "I'm afraid to be stuck here forever and never see Tony again. My father" she licked her lips "he's a really busy man, I understand why I don't see him as much as I wish, but" Her face contorted "I'd rather see him twice a year than never again."

Caspian nodded.

"My father was murdered" He said, the words still bitter in his lips "by my uncle."

Elle raised an eyebrow.

"Wow...I'm sorry"

They stood there in silence for some time.

"Maybe you should try seeing everything in a different light..." Caspian started "You didn't come alone. Phineas is here"

Caspian saw the scowl going back at her strong features.

"You should spend more time with him." He suggested but it ended up sounding as if he was asking her.

She jumped off the railing and grimaced.

"As if!" And she walked away.


	29. After taking a refreshing bath

Warning: more and more Italian swearing.

Disclaimer: I don't own the songs drom Phantom of the Opera or Love Never Dies, and I certainly don't own a thing in life.

* * *

9.

After taking a refreshing bath, Lucy Pevensie walked out of Caspian's bedroom only to find that they were passing through a path between two small islands. She heard that Caspian had decided a new destination for them: the third and biggest island of all at the end of the water trail. They would spend the night on shore to scout the islands in the morning.

Lucy was glad to hear that neither Phineas nor she would have to share the boat ride to the beach with Elle. She preferred it that way. Still Phineas didn't look in the mood for another crash course about his future world.

"Is everything alright, Phin?"

The boy had looked distracted almost all the ride, they were almost on the beach when she asked him.

"Yeah," he answered "just had another fight with Elle" He shrugged it off as if it was nothing, but Lucy could tell by his expression that it hadn't been nothing.

"You can't keep letting her treat you like that, Phin"

Lucy would never try to confront the older girl, she was Lucy the Valiant, but one thing was to be valiant and another totally different thing was to be stupid. The least she could do was to advise his friend.

"You're a person, not her puppet"

Phineas sighted and look at her. He kept looking for at least a minute, without saying a world. Lucy gulped of nervousness.

"Don't worry" Phineas finally said "I'm not letting her get away with it next time" Phineas reached at hand at Lucy and took hers in reassurance. "I promise"

Lucy felt warm raising on her cheeks.

"Come on" Drinian said as he jumped out of the boat.

Soon a fire was started. The night was cold and the ocean's breeze didn't help to contain the warm, hence the fire. Everyone had helped to find some wood to burn, even Lucy. Well, everyone except Elle and Eustace, she noticed. Everyone knew Eustace would be more of a nuisance so Caspian had asked the whining brat to stay and "take care of the provisions". Elle had said she just "didn't feel like it" so she stayed near Eustace and Lucy could swear she saw the girl having a decent conversation with his cousin.

The crew was in a good mood. At night they were all sharing stories about their individual adventures. Reep's were the best, Lucy found out. And then they asked Phin to tell one of his own. Lucy saw Elle squirming on her place.

"I-I don't have great adventures back at home, like you guys" Phin said sitting beside Lucy. "But, I guess I have something to confess." He stood up and everyone looked at him with interest. Lucy saw him sending a quick nervous glance at Elle which was looking back at him, her eyes narrowed. "I had a callback!" He said a bit much excited.

Everyone stayed in silence.

"What's a call back?" Caspian asked.

"Phin is a singer!" Lucy meddled "A really good one! I haven't heard him yet, but..."

"Then it's impossible for you to judge that, cousin" Eustace interrupted.

"I've been in the drama club of my school for quite some time now." Phineas explained everyone "No one knew this at home" there it was that quick nervous glance at his sister, who now had her arms crossed "But I auditioned for a part. The main part. And now I'll- I'll sing in a theatre and everyone will go and hear me sing" Phineas sounded too excited.

"That sounds like good news." Drinian spoke up "Back in my youth, I was once a good singer, too"

"Congratulations, Phin!" Reep clapped from his seat.

"Maybe you could sing to us?" Lucy's brother raised his voice.

"Right now?" Phineas asked with a smile, proud of the good reception he'd had about his confession.

"Sure, why not?" Caspian said before taking a sip from his beverage.

Phineas looked at Lucy and she smiled and nodded at him.

"Okay, then." He said before clearing his throat. "We'll make a famous play from my world in the drama club" Lucy saw him gulp "But I would like to sing for you a piece from a new play in Broadway, which belongs to the second part of the play we'll have in my school." Lucy saw his hands fidgeting, just like Edna's did when she was nervous "It's called "' _Till I hear you sing_ " from the play " _Love Never Dies_ " by _Andrew Lloyd Webber_." He cleared his throat again and took a deep breath.

"'The day starts, the day ends, time crawls by..."

A smiled appeared in Lucy's face when she heard the soothing voice coming out of her friend's mouth.

"Night steaks in, pacing the floor..."

She observed the way his closed eyes fluttered inside.

"The moments creep, yet I can't bear to sleep, 'till I hear you sing..."

Lucy didn't know a thing about music, or singing, but she could tell the boy was careful with his technique for the way his brows frowned.

"And weeks pass, and months pass, seasons fly"

Lucy took a look around and noticed she wasn't the only one captivated by Phin's voice. Even her moody sister was slowly being engulfed into the boy's song.

"Still you don't walk through the door..."

Lucy's eyes returned to him, finally understanding that it was a song of heartbreak. Only a painful filled voice could interpret something like that, and her friend was doing a really good job.

"And in a haze, I count the silent days,"

His voice wasn't grave. No, even when he talked he kept that childish ring only boys who haven't finished growing had. At times, when they talked, his voice would even crack. But although the song seemed to belong for an adult man, Phineas filled the empty spaces with the feeling he put on each word.

"till I hear you sing once more. And sometimes at night time, I dream that you are there..."

The words and his voice's melody really dunked into Lucy. She had never experienced heartbreak, for Aslan, she had never even been in love. But Lucy knew a certain pair that had experienced both love and heartbreak. She looked at Caspian and Edmund, sitting at the other side of the fire next to one another, their eyes, illuminated by the hot embers, watching at the blonde boy standing by her. She saw something more in their eyes...hurt.

"...but wake up holding nothing but empty air. And years come and years go, time runs dry. Still I ache down to the core." Phineas frown deepened and his face contorted with emotion "My broken soul can't be alive and whole..."

Lucy saw Phineas again. She had to look up to see his face and in the way, she noticed his knuckles were white because of the closing of his fists.

"...till I hear you sing once more. And music, your music, it teases at my ear."

It didn't matter that there wasn't a piano in the background, but the waves crashing on the rocks, the wind running through the trees and the cracking of the wood, Lucy could hear and sense the song's true melody as he elongated his words, creating beautiful sounds.

"I turn and it fades away..." He took a quick but deep breath "and you're not here..."

Lucy shivered

"Let hopes pass, let dreams pass. Let them die!" He belted his heart out.

Lucy flinched on her seat. She had never doubt Phineas would be a good singer but he was even better than that. He wasn't just a singer, no, he was a true interpreter.

"Without you, what are they for?" His nose crunched as a perfect vibrato came out of him. "I'll always feel, no more than halfway real" he sang with clenched teeth and then took a deep breath, and so did Lucy and almost everyone around the fire. "Till I hear you sing..." his voice raised again extending each of the final words of his song "...once more." He belted out and sustained the perfect note for a few seconds before opening her eyes.

The first thing they searched for, everyone noticed, were Lucy's. The girl's emotions had clearly been captivated.

She smiled in approval, the boy relaxed and accepted the hand Lucy gave him.

* * *

"What's wrong with you uncultured people?!" Eustace decided to be the first one to spoke up after the German boy finished his performance. Eustace jumped up from his seat and started clapping "Don't you know anything about art?"

The British kid had thought no one had liked the presentation or that maybe everyone was actually deaf. What really happened was that they had all been affected by the boy's song.

Caspian, for example, had left his cup of wine by him on the sand, unfinished. Something the king never did. Edmund, on the other hand, was fighting to hold back the glistening inside his eyes, by doing so, his teeth were clenched and his arms were crossed around himself.

Eustace could not believe the lack of refinement of these people. Back in his country, when someone gave an artistic performance, the artists had to be clapped at after they finished.

"Phineas, I..." The mouse started without words. Was the mouse thing really speechless? Eustace couldn't believe it! "I didn't know you were so good, my friend!" He cheered.

The king, Eustace saw, came out of his shock state and started clapping.

"By Aslan's mane, Phineas! Maybe I could take you some time with me to Archenland. The king would love to hear you."

Eustace saw his male cousin nodding and failing at giving a smile.

"Well, done, kid" Edmund said.

"Well, done?" Eustace exclaimed and raised his hand at the other blonde boy of the group "I am very competitive student in my district, I once received a letter by the first minister. I could schedule you an appointment with the queen when we get back..."

Phineas smiled and stretched Eustace's hand uncomfortably.

"What did you think, Elle?" Lucy's cheering voice raised through the fire.

"What do I think?" The girl whom Eustace had talked earlier after everyone had left for wood spoke up.

In less than a second, Eustace remembered their conversation after everyone had left them alone. She had not been as aggressive as she usually was with him. Calling him things like Gustave or Mr. Brows. On the contrary, she had been pretty calmed, asking him if he missed his home and what would be the first thing he would do after getting back.

"Me, for example, I'll fill a tub of hot water and take a bubble bath that I so deserve." She had said and after he answered she went back to ignoring him.

"Hey, kid!" Eustace went back to reality and took a step back, not wanting to be standing in the middle of what he was sure would become a fight. "Stop it, okay?" She made a wicked face "You're not even good." She spat before crossing her arms and looking away.

"Oh," Eustace head turned to his left and saw the singer flinching at his sister's words. "I'm sorry," Phineas truly meant it "you didn't like it?" Eustace haven't talk a lot with the boy until then. He couldn't actually remember a talk between them alone. It was as if both boys had been ignoring each other until that moment. Yet, Eustace could bet that the bad-mannered girl's opinion was important for the German.

"'dat was like" the girl started with a grimace on her face "the worst thing I've heard" she wasn't looking at anyone, her eyes were everywhere else. "like ever." She shrugged and stood up, readying herself to leave "If I have to be honest," Elle looked at his brother with a fake smile "stick to your math books, okay?"

And she turned around to start walking to her blanket, where she would rest.

"You don't have to always be so rude" Eustace looked at his female cousin who had spoken up. He gave her a face saying ' _Are you crazy_?'

"Oh" the girl half turned with her brows raising "I know I don't have to," her nose wrinkled "but I want to" she shrugged "at least to him..."

"Elle" Caspian's voice raised in warning, but the girl didn't seem to care for she was about to keep up with the bickering, but something stopped her.

"Why?" The blonde boy, by Eustace's left side asked.

" _Scusa_ ," The girl to Eustace's right side asked. "did you say something?" Her eyes rolled.

"I-I...I,uh" Phineas stuttered "said ' _why_?'" Eustace saw him fidgeting with his hands. "Why do you always have to be so rude to me?" His breathing was coming out in heavy exhalations.

"Phineas..." Lucy's sweet voice raised in warning.

"No!" Phineas stopped her and then looked at his sister "why do you always have to be a..." He hesitated " a bitch to me?"

Eustace's eyes opened wide. He looked across the fire at his cousin Edmund and noticed his weak moment after the song had passed. He was now focused and impressed for what was occurring.

"What did you just call me," The girl hissed at Eustace's right "lil' piece of _merde_?!" He jumped in his place, feeling as if she had insulted to him and not to her brother. Eustace took another step back.

"Cut the Italian crap, Elle!" Phineas raised his voice in anger, his hands never stopped fidgeting "And answer me!"

"Fine!" She exclaimed in nasty entertainment "do you want to know why?" She tilted her head.

"Here we go..." Edmund muttered.

"Because I don't like you Mr Perfect!" She spat. "I don't like the way you came into our lives, more specifically your father, how he made my parents get divorced, and how mother allowed it of course."

It wasn't her voice speaking. It was her feelings' after being moved by Phineas' interpretation. Everyone had been touched by the song, Eustace realized, but not all of them in a positive way.

"My father's in Italy and I never see him and it's all your fault, _sfigato_!"

"What you're saying doesn't make any sense!" Phineas yelled too, and Eustace cringed, afraid that his vocal chords would get ruined. "Your parents divorced way before my father met your mother and you know it. Mother said that!"

"Oh, and you believe her?" She gave him a frustrated look "People lie, they hide things, Phineas. Grow up!" The girl was fuming "Don't you think it's a coincidence that not even a year passed from when they divorced and mom had already married a new guy!" She raised her hands to prove her point "It's obvious they had an affair and my father fled to Italy; my brother and I ended fatherless. But if you think that I am a bitch to you" she pointed at Phineas "then so was karma because at the end it's your father who dropped dead" She finished with satisfaction.

Eustace gulped and looked to his left, waiting for the boy's reply after that low blow.

"You can think and say everything you want about my parents," The blonde teenager took a step to his sister, Eustace took another step back "god, you can even hate me" Phineas raised his hands in frustration" but the least you could do is be respectful," he was now pointing at her "I'm still you brother"

Eustace saw Caspian trying to stand up, probably to end the discussion that kept steaming up, but Edmund put a hand in front of him.

"Half-brother, _stronzo_!" Elle shouted "My only brother is Tony!"

"You don't understand!" Phineas had started to shook his head, agitatedly "You don't understand anything!" His face was scarlet red "You think you know and are right at everything but you're not!" He was almost hyperventilating.

"What does it have to do with what I was saying, _sfigato_?!" She yelled taking a dangerous step to him.

"Because Tony's your half brother too!" He finally yelled, his chest relaxed, but the wavering breathing and white knuckles remained. Phineas was trembling in rage, his eyes filled with tears.

"I'm your brother as much as Tony." He said his voice now low and cracked. He closed his eyes, tears rolling down his cheeks and he kept shaking his head with hurt "I'm your brother as much as Tony" He repeated, but it sounded like he was telling it to himself. He opened his eyes, and walked away with a shivering stance.

Eustace saw his cousin Lucy leaving to go after him. The cheerfulness that had once surrounded the fire was long gone.

Eustace looked in the corner of his eye the black-haired girl putting both of her hands around her mouth.

"YEAH!" She yelled at her brother " _VAFFANCULO, BUGIARDO_!"


	30. You're not denying it

10.

" _You're not denying it.._." Elle saw a younger version of her mother standing in front of their living room's couch.

" _I'm sorry_ " A man that, Elle realized, was his father in a younger version was sitting on it, his elbows resting on his knees, his head bowed.

After Phineas little theatre show, everyone had left to rest. Elle didn't care to check if her brother had come back. She was still mad for the huge lie he had thrown at her face

Tony? Her half brother, too?

"Puh-lease!"

She didn't want to speak to anyone, nor Caspian, nor Edmund, nor Eustace. Not even the young Gael, who ,Elle thought, was too sweet for her own good. So, the teenager laid over her blanket, which was by Lucy's and closed her eyes.

Hours later, she was woken up as she got kidnapped by a mysterious and invisible force. She wanted to scream, but couldn't, because something was keeping her mouth closed. She saw Lucy, floating in the air, near her, too. It helped her not to freak out as much, but she didn't relaxed. Not even when they were thrown on the grass and the mysterious force took Lucy's knife away. Elle had had enough of green mists and invisible hijackers.

Several strong voices started talking around the two girls and the only thing they could see was vapor coming out of the invisible creatures.

"What do you want?" Elle had asked.

"You'll do what we ask." A roaring voice answered "She will!" Another one second.

"Or what?" Lucy asked the second time.

"Or death." Both girl's flinched as the voices started chanting the word 'Death.'

"Well, I won't be much use to you when I'm dead now, would I?" Lucy looked around her.

"We still have the other girl" The first voice answered.

"Yes, the other girl!" A whiny voice said.

"Then you'd have to kill me too" Elle's voice raised with bravery. It surprised Lucy.

"Then we'll just kill your friends" the voice thundered.

"What do you want with us?" Lucy asked.

It seemed that the useless hijackers only wanted them to get into an invisible house to read a spell to make the "unseen, seen". When the doors closed behind them, Elle took a step to the front.

"They said it was upstairs" She had said "maybe we should split up to find that book faster." She grimaced "This place smells weird"

Lucy didn't answer her, only nodded. Elle could tell the younger girl was still upset for what had happened with Phineas, especially because it was obvious to her that Lucy had a thing for her brother.

So, they split up.

Elle wandered through several rooms, kicking things on her way, and moving things out of place. That place was not a house, it was a mansion. A big one, which made the task at hand harder.

Elle opened a door. Until then she had only found laboratories, libraries and bedrooms, but what she found in that room left her speechless.

It was an oasis.

A dark oasis in the middle of the room. The floor was filled with sand, the ceiling was endless which allowed the palms grow on the room, and in the middle of it all there was a pond. Elle took a step inside, curiosity raising inside of her. But when she heard the door closing after her and she turned around, it had disappeared. She frowned as she put her hands on the bare wall. It hadn't turned invisible, it had literally disappeared.

"Lucy?!" She called but the echoes that rumbled through the place made her wish she never had.

She turned around and look at the pond. Her nose wrinkled when she thought she had seen something inside. She looked around and asked:

"Hello?" But only the echoes of her voice answered.

She sat near the pond and put her hands on the edges of the sand. She kept looking at the water, that gleamed blue, but she couldn't see the bottom. Of course, no one could jump at her from the inside. Then she saw it.

And again.

It was a blurry image, of someone. She leaned to the front. Maybe it had only been her reflection. But there it was again. It was a woman.

"Mom?" She muttered and placed a finger over the image.

The pull was the last thing she felt.

When she opened her eyes again, she was in her living room. She took a look around in disbelief. She put a hand on her face, her hair, her chest. She was back! All of her was back!

There were some changes in the living room. She noticed that all her photographs, soccer medals, fencing trophies that usually were over the chimney were gone.

"I just leave for some days and she already get rid of all my stuff." She muttered darkly referring to her mother.

But there was something else going on there, because Phineas diplomas weren't there too, nor Tony's football. Also, the painted walls of different colors on the living room and kitchen were white.

Elle turned around and noticed how slowly she wasn't being alone anymore.

A grey smoke was raising from the floor until it turned into actual solid figures. Two humans. One of them was sitting on the couch, the other one was standing.

Elle realized who those people were: the blonde and skinny woman didn't have the wrinkles around her eyes and mouth like Elle remembered. The man, didn't have the grey streaks of hair on his dark head.

Hers and Tony's parents.

" _You're not denying it..._ " The younger version of Edna Taylor-Moore repeated.

" _I'm so sorry_ " Gianni repeated too.

" _Wow_ ," Edna's arms crossed " _that's low even for you_ ," she lowered her voice " _my mother was right, she's always been_ "

The man raised his head and his hands.

" _We can move past this_ " he begged.

" _It's over Gianni_ " She said and the man's cheeks got stained by tears " _why are you crying?_ " She asked kneeling down and putting a hand on his knee " _I thought this is what you wanted_ " Edna shook her head and her face fell. " _Go to her if that's what you want"_ She whispered raising her hand to his face " _you know I can't get mad at anyone_ "

Elle couldn't believe what was happening. Right there, in front of her eyes, she was living the exact moment when her parents had decided to separate and was feeling confused, not understanding what was really happening. Why was his father so upset? Why was her mother acting as if she was the one forgiving?"

Gianni's shoulders started shaking as the sobs came out.

" _It's Tony_ ," he cried " _what am I gonna tell him_?" Elle hold her breath. " _You're the only mother he knows_ " the man rubbed his eyes " _I'm the worst!_ "

Elle was slowly understanding what was happening but she didn't want to accept what she was seeing. It was probably only a magic trick, making her see weird stuff that had never happened. Still, a part of her...

" _Leave him with me_ " Edna whispered.

Gianni raised his head again, his red eyes looked at Edna's cold pair.

" _Are you sure there's anything I can't do to make you change your mind?_ " He asked his voice merely a whisper.

" _Gianni_ ," Edna sighted " _I could forgive if it had happened once,_ " the woman shrugged " _twice,_ " she shook her head before arranging her black glasses over the bridge of her nose " _but this has been going on for 3 years_ " She pursed her lips. _"I'll take care of the both of them. Just..._ " Edna cleaned the tears from his face " _promise me you're not abandoning them, they need to keep seeing you, okay?_ " She asked and the man nodded " _Give me a hug_ " the woman whispered and Elle saw the last hug between them.

She was paralyzed, not believing anything. It was all a magic trick. A punishment for the fight she'd had with Phineas before. She couldn't move as she saw her father standing up and walking through the door.

When Edna closed the door, and Elle saw it was dark outside, she leaned on the door slide down until she sat on the floor.

She started sobbing.

Her mother never cried. Never! She was never sad, for starters. In all her life, Elle had only seen her crying on the day Elle's _nonno_ had died.

Edna closed her eyes and hugged her legs, letting her head rest on her knees. She was wearing a long skirt that reached her ankles and a jean jacket, Elle saw.

She didn't know what to do. Edna was crying, for God's sake. Elle felt like she would start crying at any moment too. But the girl saw that even though the woman was sobbing it seemed like she was trying to control herself, to keep it low.

Then the cry of a baby was heard. Elle turned her face around looking for the source. Then she saw a little boy, with tan skin and dark hair.

" _Mamma_?" The boy called rubbing his eyes.

Elle saw Edna wiping her tear quickly behind her glasses and standing up in even less that a minute.

" _Elle sta piangendo_ " It was Tony! A 5 year old Tony!

Elle saw her mother's face changing into a calmed, cheerful smile as she walked to the little kid and took his hand.

The grey smoke from before raised again around all the room and when it settled down, Elle found herself in a different place she soon recognized.

It was her mother's gallery, on the first floor of their house. She recognized it as soon as she saw the beige walls filled with the paintings of woods and beaches and ruins.

" _It's beautiful_ " the smoke settled again in front of a painting and two people appeared there. It was her mother again, and a red-headed man. " _what inspired you to do it?_ " He asked Edna, fidgeting with his own glasses as he neared his face to the painting. It was a view, a landscape, of a great field, with ruins in the middle, woods in the horizon, and it seemed as a picture that had been taken from the heights.

" _A place I once visited._ " Edna explained and smiled at the man. It was Rowland, Phineas' father " _Are you taking it too_?"

Elle recognized him because of the pictures of him in her mother's bedroom. But looking at the two of them together it was obvious that Rowland was so much older than Edna.

" _Actually, this might sound strange_ " Elle saw the man getting nervous because of the way he started moving his hands across his red locks of short curly hair " _but I actually came today to..._ " he hesitated " _would you like to go for a coffee one of these days?_ " Edna's smile was the last thing Elle saw before the smoke rise again.

 _"You look beautiful_ "

Elle was now in an unfamiliar bedroom. She turned around and saw her mother in a wedding dress, in front of a mirror. A younger version of _nonna_ Enola was there. Her hair wasn't as white as now, and she clearly looked strong too.

" _I feel beautiful mother_ " Edna shivered and hugged herself _"I'm scared_ "

" _Because it's not Peter_?" _Nonna_ asked

Edna shook her head

" _I already have two children, and the third is coming_ ," She put a hand on her belly " _so are my thirties_ ," She faked a smile " _maybe I should start letting go all of that.._."

Enola shook her head

" _Keep going but hold on to what is precious_ " She said.

" _It's my second marriage. What if I messed it up again?_ " Edna's lower lip trembled. _Nonna_ stood up and took her by the shoulders.

" _It wasn't your fault last time. That you should let go_." Nonna's grip tightened " _Rowland's a good man. And you know..."_

 _"You're always right_ " Edna finished with a smile. " _Don't let it get to your head mother. You were not always right._ " She joked referring to something Elle didn't understand.

Enola laughed and the smoke surrounded Elle.

" _He ugly_!" She saw at her little self in a hospital bedroom.

" _Ellie_!" Edna was lying on the bed, with a baby on her arms. Tony was by the bed, combing their mother's sweaty hairs with his 6-year-old fingers.

" _What_?" A 2-year-old Elle asked from the arms of a ginger haired man who was carrying her " _He is pink squishy_!"

The real Elle smiled at the memory she had forgotten. It really was a beautiful sight, which made her heart thump strongly inside her chest. But the smile soon faded as she saw the man take her down and put a handkerchief on his mouth. He started coughing, and coughing he walked his way out of the room.

Then, Elle was right where she had started. In the living room of her house. It was dark, the lights were off. It didn't last for too long, though. The main door opened and a 7-year-old Tony walked inside, followed by a 3-year-old Elle. Behind them Edna walked inside carrying a sleeping 1-year old Phineas.

Elle noticed something more: they were all dressed in black.

" _Tony_ " Edna's cheerful voice raised " _could you-could you open the door when grandma gets here?_ " The cheerfulness faltered. It was obvious the woman was putting on a strong façade in front of the kids " _I need to go to my room...and take Phineas to bed_ " She muttered in a monotone voice.

" _Yes_ , _mamma_ " Tony answered.

" _Tony_?" As soon as the woman disappeared through the door, little Elle asked.

" _Mmm_?"

" _Rowland's gone_." She said "D _o you think dad is coming back_?"

The kids and everything around teenager Elle disappeared into smoke and she found herself in a white illuminated place.

 _"I know I said that_ " Elle saw her mother, now looking older, sitting on a grey sofa with a cellphone on her ear "b _ut I can't take them to Orlando, right now Gianni._ " Enola was sitting by her" _I'm in a hospital_." Elle looked around her, and indeed, they were in a hospital waiting room " _No, it's Phineas. He's...got a problem._ " She waited on the line " _But you can come for them._ " Edna listened " _Oh, okay._ " She but her lip and shook her head. " _Don't worry I'll tell them._ " Edna put a hand on her forehead " _Next month, then._ " She said before hanging up.

" _What is it?_ " Enola asked her.

" _I'll have to tell the kids I can't take them to their father._ " Edna rubbed her eyes in distress.

Elle felt strange looking at her that way. Yeah, her mother usually didn't care about how she looked but this was worse. It was as if she hadn't slept for years, she was thinner than before, her hair was a bird's nest and she didn't look relaxed at all.

" _Why can't he come for them_? "Enola crossed her arms.

" _He didn't specify_ " Edna answered with her eyes closed.

Enola pursed her lips as she put an arm around her daughter.

" _And then I scored, mamma_!" Elle didn't feel the change of place this time, but now she was standing on the dining table. A six-year-old Elle was eating her dinner with a 10-year-old Tony sitting by her. In front of them were a 4-year-old Phineas and an even older Edna. " _Everyone screamed "Goal_!""

" _That sounds like fun, baby._ " Edna answered as she cleaned a bit of porridge from Phineas' mouth. " _I'm sorry I couldn't go I had to take Phineas to the cemetery for his father's anniversary_ " She explained.

" _Oh_ " Little Elle said frowning.

" _I won, Ellie_!" The family in front of her disappeared into smoke. Elle heard the voice coming from behind her, from the living room, so she turned around and over the couch she saw a 6-year-old Phineas sitting on the floor, with an 8 year old Elle in front of him. Between them, Elle saw, was a Harry Potter chess table.

" _You cheated_!" The Elle that had half her actual age yelled.

" _I didn't."_

 _"Then you don't know how to play"_

Older Elle smiled looking at little Elle putting Phineas in his place

" _I do"_

 _"You don't"_

 _"I DO!_ " Phineas yelled.

" _Hey, shut up! I'm your older sister. You have to respect me._ "

Elle smiled. She was so cool, even when she was little. But she frowned when she saw the kids disappear and instead her whole family, except by her father, reappeared on the living room sitting on the couch. Nonna Enola was in the sofa. They were all in front of the TV. They were watching a soccer game. Italy vs Deutschland.

" _Why are you wearing a different T-shirt?_ " Elle hadn't noticed what young Elle was saying " _Why's he wearing a different T-shirt mom?_ " Tony and Elle had an Italy T-shirt, while Phineas had a Deutschland one.

" _Because his father was German. Just like yours is Italian_ " Edna explained. She didn't have a soccer T-shirt, nor did her nonna.

" _Yeah_ ," a 6-year-old Phineas exclaimed " _my grandpa went to war_!"

Elle looked at young Elle who looked at her 12-year-old Tony and saw him make a look at their mother. Edna only gave him a face back that little Elle didn't understand but older Elle did. The face said _don't say a word_.

" _Why does she always go after him?_ " A 10-year-old Elle scowled as she saw her mother leave after her 8-year-old annoying brother.

" _Because you are too harsh to him, Ellie._ " 14-year-old Tony rolled his eyes from the couch.

" _It's not my fault he's a German crybaby_ " Elle shrugged with an evil smirk.

The real Elle frowned at her.

" _Don't frustrate yourself with him._ " The kids had disappeared and it was just her nonna and mother on the living room now.

" _If he just spent more time with his children maybe Ellie wouldn't behave like that."_ Edna rubbed her eyelids " _You know I'm not good with punishments_ " Enola out her daughter's head on her legs and rubbed her temples " _he could help me at least with that."_

 _"It's been too many years and he still trouble you._ " Enola sighted

" _Sometimes I wonder if I did good with the divorce and all._ " The real Elle raised her eyebrows recognizing those words. She took a few steps and behind a wall she saw at herself, 4 years ago, listening only the last few words.

" _Dear, once a man cheats, he'll cheat again_." Enola's said " _So does a woman._ " Enola had added the last part to complement her words, but young Elle had taken them the wrong way. The real Enola saw the betrayer face of her younger mirror.

" _It's better this way, yes. Not being tied to a man I can do whatever I want_ " Edna sighted.

But finally, Elle understood. That conversation had changed her perspective of her mother for a long time, but now that she saw it again she remembered all those times her mother said that with no man she could spend more time with them. That's what she had meant with "whatever I want"

The smoke rose again and she found herself on Phineas bedroom. The attic. The kid loved the attic, so it had become his bedroom.

" _Phineas_ ," Elle saw her mother laying on the bed with a 10-year-old Phineas " _I'll tell you a secret_ , "he was crying, uncontrollably " _okay?_ " He almost couldn't even breath. Edna was rubbing his chest with an ointment, while she made soothing sounds and breathing techniques for him to mimic " _Only Tony knows about this,_ " Elle saw that not only Phineas had his eyes red, but so did her mother " _you can't tell Ellie...Promise me_?" Phineas nodded as his gasping decreased " _She doesn't understand that you're his brother as much a Tony."_ Edna murmured and kissed his temple "Y _ou two were born from the same mother._ "Edna pursed her lips in sadness " _They didn't."_

 _"Are you saying that..._?" Phineas started but Elle never heard what he wanted to say because she felt herself in a swirl of smoke and colors and images.

She saw Phineas crying a dozen of times. She saw Phineas having asthma attacks because of his altered emotions. She saw her mother's worries: Elle's behavior, Phineas' state, Tony leaving, Enola aging, Gianni returning, Rowland gone. She saw her own face smirking, scowling, grimacing, crunching and she heard her own voice calling at her youngest brother one time for each year she had spent with him.

 _"Phinny?"_

 _"Phin!"_

 _"Phin!"_

 _"Phin!"_

 _"Phineas!"_

 _"Phineas!"_

 _"Kid!"_

 _"German boy!"_

 _"Dumb dumb!"_

 _"Fool!"_

 _"Retard!"_

 _"Stupid!"_

 _"Sfigato!"_

 _"Stronzo!"_

 _"BUGIARDO!"_

And she heard Phineas' voice calling her one time for each year since he could talk.

 _"Ellie"_

 _"Ellie"_

 _"Ellie"_

 _"Ellie"_

 _"Ellie"_

 _"Ellie"_

 _"Ellie"_

 _"Ellie"_

 _"Elle"_

 _"Elle"_

 _"Witch"_

 _"Elle"_

 _"Bitch"_

Elle heard too a bell ringing and she saw her mother being restrained by a man on the ship they had been in before going to Narnia. And she was screaming looking at the dark waters.

 _"ELLIE! ELLIE! PHINEAS!"_

She saw too a warm living room where a man was sitting near the fire, relaxed, beside a young woman who was holding a baby.

" _Who's daddy's girl?_ " It was Gianni.

Elle knew both images were happening back in their world, at the same time and she couldn't hold it.

She screamed.

Elle gasped and found herself lying by the pond as if she had been spat by it. She sat up, her head still turning around, when she saw the door had reappeared. She ran the hell out of that room.


	31. Caspian was relieved

11.

Caspian was relieved to have found Lucy with Coriakin, but there was no sign of Elle.

"We split as soon as we walked into the house" Lucy informed the group that went into the house.

"She's still in here, somewhere" Coriakin said looking at the ceiling "I sense her anger."

The group's members looked at one another and nodded. If Coriakin sensed an angered soul inside his mansion, then of course it would be Elle.

"Come with me" The bearded man walked up the stairs "There are things we must discuss"

Once in the library, the old man opened a large map across the floor. Of course, it was magical, and Eustace and Phineas were the ones who got more impressed by it.

Coriakin told them about the spell of the Dark Island, about the lords that had come to him and about how to end with the wickedness that owned said island. They needed to follow a blue star to go to Romandu's Island and lay the 7 swords on Aslan's table. All of that, while being in danger of the evil of the Dark island.

"To defeat the darkness out there." Coriakin said at everybody inside the room, but looked specifically at Caspian "You must defeat the darkness inside yourself"

The tension in the room was visible in the faces of all the group. Caspian thought that it was so strong that the room could explode at any minute. That's why he almost jumped when there was a knock in the great doors of the library. Coriakin raised a hand, and Caspian saw how, slowly, the great and heavy wooden doors opened by themselves.

Elle was behind them.

"Why is it that every time you come to us you're soaking wet?" It was the first thing that came out of Caspian's mouth.

"Don't get me started" The girl said through her clenched teeth.

Caspian looked at Coriakin. The man had said that the girl was inside his house. Why didn't he specify that she was probably in trouble?

"My house welcomes the good hearted" Coriakin's voice was heard throughout the library as he shrugged "and leashes against the rotten hearted."

"Did the old man just called me rotten?" Elle's eyes opened offended.

She took a dangerous step inside the room, but stopped when her eyes flickered at Phineas, standing beside Caspian. The girl pursed her lips and crossed her wet arms.

"We should get going, then" Caspian said to everyone and so they walked out of the mansion.

The sky was grey when they arrived at the boats and the wind was raging more violently than the night before. Caspian was on his way to his ship when he noticed that one of his boat companions was shivering.

"Stupid man with his stupid house and his stupid pond and stupid invisible thingies." She kept cursing under her breath.

"Is everything alright, Elle?" Caspian asked her.

"Everything's not alright, Caspian. Thank you very much" She faked a smile "I'm totally wet, my head's killing me and... I keep shivering" She groaned to the sky before looking at him again. She eyed him for a second and a smile appeared in her face "Take your shirt off" She demanded.

"Uh..." He blinked repeatedly "pardon me?"

"You listened. Take your shirt off!" She exclaimed making a hard face.

Caspian shook his head. Was this young lady actually asking him to do what she had just said?

"Why?" He asked before taking a glance at the other two men in the boat who weren't listening their conversation.

"Because, sir," She said sarcastically "you're the _principe azurro_ , you're supposed to keep me warm with your clothes, duh." She rolled her eyes.

"I don't think that would be proper for me to do." Caspian answered nervously.

"Okay. Then leave me like this so I can catch a cold, and you can cry by my death bed." She scowled.

Caspian hesitated, not because he believed she could die of a cold but because he was a gentleman. And gentlemen were supposed to keep ladies safe and comfortable, right? Slowly, and frowning for the weird situation he was in, he started untying his brown leather vest and unbuttoning his white shirt underneath.

"This is so strange" He muttered as he saw at Drinian in the boat to their left, giving his king an awkward stare.

Soon Caspian was naked in his upper body. He was now being watched by all of the crew in the boats, even by the Pevensies in the other boats.

"I don't understand how I ended up this way." Caspian said as he handed Elle his dry shirt.

"No!" She exclaimed "Did you even watch _The Princess Bride_?" She asked in a matter-of-fact voice "You have to come up with something smart to say when you grant something to..." She paused "Oh, wait." She frowned in thought "Forget it. That's for something else entirely" She wasn't looking at him anymore "Just give me the shirt" She took it quickly from his hand and covered with it.

"As you wish" Caspian said sarcastically, raising an eyebrow and looking away, not wanting to deal with the special girl exactly when he was being publicly humiliated.

Elle looked at him and her eyes narrowed in wonder, but then she shook her head and looked away.

She didn't want to be near Phineas.

No, she wasn't ready to face him. So, for the rest of the day, Elle would walk away whenever she saw him coming near her. But everywhere she went to he was already there. So, she decided to disobey the king of Narnia. She climbed to the main mast of the ship and sat inside the crow's nest. Elle spent most of the day in it, remembering everything she had seen on that bloody crazy room, wondering if what she had seen was just a fake illusion.

At least her clothes were dry.

"Hello, there" A voice that was climbing the main mast said. Elle turned around and saw Edmund getting into the crow's nest, too.

"What's up?" She said disinterested in whatever the dude wanted.

"I just came to check up on you. Is everything alright?" He asked, his head raised to the sky as if he was looking for something. Oh, right. The blue star.

"Why does everyone feel in the need to ask " _Is everything alright_ "?" She faked a weird accent before throwing her arms in the air with exasperation. "Everything's alright, okay? But some people like to be alone to talk to themselves." She shook her head, her knuckles white, grasping at the nest's railing.

"Why would you prefer talk to yourself when you can talk to somebody else? You get a second opinion that way." Edmund shrugged his eyes still in the stars.

Elle frowned. Well, she already had been frowning, as usual, but her frown deepened. If Edmund so wanted to talk to her, the least he could do was to look at her.

"What do you want, Edmund?" She growled "It's obvious you're not here for me."

"You're right. I didn't actually come for you. I wanted to ask you to talk to Phineas. The kid's..." he tilted his head sideways "the kids not doing fine since yesterday."

Elle's mouth twitched and her forehead relaxed.

"What-what do I care?"

Edmund shook his head

"He's your youngest brother." He answered as if it was reason enough. "For Aslan, you're so thick headed"

"Jeez, thanks."

They sat on the nest for a while in silence.

"Are we staying up all night again?" Elle asked with sarcasm.

"Probably." Edmund muttered "It's funny to talk to you."

"Why?" She asked sincerely curious.

"I can't help but laugh" He shrugged.

"Laugh with me or at me?" She asked in a monotonous voice.

"Sorry, but at you." He confessed in the same monotonous voice.

"Ha ha, I hate you" Elle's poker face looked up to the sky. "Just as I hate Narnia."

"Sorry, only special people understand the real value of these lands."

"Ouch" She put a hand over her heart. "I came up here to talk about my old life, what I left behind, to myself and to avoid Phineas and ended up insulted" She shook her head in boredom. "Really, you people, leave alone us the pacifists"

Edmund grinned.

"You're such a cry baby"

"I'm not." Her lips twisted "but I really want to be alone"

"It's weird how you're the first one of your family that comes to Narnia and says out loud that she wants to be alone." Edmund stood up to leave "Your grandmother hated to be alone, and your mother learned not to be alone anymore." Edmund gave her a look "Strong women they were. You should learn from them."

And he found his way to climb down.

It left Elle thinking about what she had seen that same day, inside the pond with the grey smoke. Edmund seemed to know a lot about her family. Maybe through him, Elle could discover if what she had seen had been real.

"Well, that's strange" Edmund frowned after hearing everything the dark-haired girl had told him. "You should've asked Coriakin, but..." he hesitated "what you tell me actually sounds like how Edna and En would act."

The next morning, after their conversation in the crow's nest, Elle decided to tell Edmund everything she had seen on the pond, well, most of it.

"So, you've away thought your mother had..." he paused uncomfortable with the words that were not so publicly pronounced in his times "an affair and that's why she divorced your dad?"

"Because of what I heard." Elle nodded

Edmund frowned and look at his hands resting on the starboard.

"I don't know, El" He shook his head "That doesn't sound like Edna, at all. She's always been so sweet, so proper...She would never..." He didn't finish as he saw the change of expression in the girl's face. "And I think you know it, too. I think you know that what you saw, everything, was real." He finished.

El bit her lip.

"Then I've really been acting like a bitch all these years" She muttered with a hurted voice before walking away.

"I never got to tell you this, but I really loved your singing back at the island." Lucy said, her cheeks flushing, sitting next to Phineas in their usual spot, the stairs.

Phineas wasn't in the mood, he hadn't been for two days. He was still hurted for everything that had happened between him and his sister. So, Lucy had tried to cheer him up by telling him how much she had liked his song.

At last, something made him smile.

"Thanks" It was the first sincere smile Lucy had seen in him for days.

"Would you sing to me another song?" Lucy asked nervously putting a lock of her behind her ear.

"I'd love to" Phineas nodded.


	32. What're you doing here?

12.

"What're you doing here?" Caspian found a stowaway inside the captain's cabin when he walked inside to look for a new telescope. Since the one who he had carried with him the last days, not the one that Elle had thrown into the ocean, had disappeared.

"I wanted to be alone, out of the sun and comfortable" The 16-year-old laying incorrectly in his sofa answered. She was playing with something in her hands.

"Is that my telescope?" Caspian asked walking to her.

She raised her eyes at him, and made an innocent face.

"Was it yours?" She asked "Sorry" Her nose wrinkled as she gave it to him and then fell limp on the sofa.

"You're not in a good mood, am I right?"

"I want to be alone" The girl groaned.

"Fine" Caspian turned around and walked to the door.

"Hey!" The girl called him "could you command the crew not to come inside here? I don't want people going in and out all day."

Caspian rolled his eyes as he closed the door.

"As you wish, your majesty." He had discovered that to stay out of the girl's wrath it was best to let her get away with what she wanted.

"I'm starving!" Edmund found a moaning Elle lying on the floor of the Dawn Treader's prow.

"But you already had your portion of food for dinner" Edmund said as he took a sear next to her.

"But I usually borrow a bit of Phineas portion." She sat up and rubbed her belly "Now I can't."

Edmund sighted and gave the girl his apple. He wasn't that hungry anyways.

The next day, Elle spent all day inside the captain's cabin, playing around with the ancient artifacts that belonged to Caspian.

She was looking at a shield hanging on a wall.

"It was Peter's" A voice said behind her.

"You need to stop doing that." She said putting a hand on her chest "Seriously"

"Sorry" Edmund walked to her.

"Don't get me wrong." Elle said "I hate Narnia, but I love your style." She tilted her head to her right, as she touched the shield with her fingertips "In clothes, armor, architecture..."

"Thanks, I guess" Edmund put his hands inside his pants pockets.

"So," Elle's head bounced "Peter's, huh?"

"Yeah," Edmund nodded "my brother was once an amazing king."

"I think I get why _nonna_ and my mother fancied all of you." Elle's face wrinkled "Money aside, you're all kind of cute" She said.

Then she opened her eyes, realizing that what she had said didn't make sense. The only Pevensie she had met was Edmund, and if she was saying that the Pevensies were "kind of cute" then her only reference would be Edmund. Elle decided to act as if nothing had happened, she didn't turn to look at Edmund. Probably he hadn't noticed.

"So, tell me." She cleared her throat "How's the oldest Pevensie now? You know, after everything that happened with my mom" She put her hands inside her pockets, too, still staring at the shield.

"He's okay now. I guess. He's in America with Susan" Edmund's tight voice said beside her. "Last time I checked they were having a great time. But..." Edmund took something out of his trousers. "he always carries her picture around"

Elle saw that Edmund had a picture, too on his hand. It seemed too modern to be from his age, but old enough to be from hers.

"That's _nonna_ " Elle muttered taking the small photograph on her hand.

"Your mother gave it to me when she came" Edmund explained. "I ripped it in half and gave Peter the other part, where you mother appeared."

Elle shook her head.

"You too keep the photograph, you know?" She looked up at him.

"So?"

"So" she said "you're still not over my _nonna_ " She realized.

Edmund retrieved the image.

"What I feel for your grandmother..." He hesitated "it's complicated" he muttered before walking out the room.

"You can't sleep here, Elle"

"Why not?" The girl looked at Caspian from behind the desk.

"You just can't. That wouldn't be appropriate." Caspian explained "You have a bed waiting for you."

"A bed that I have to share with Lucy and Gael." Elle looked at him in exasperation "Please, Caspian! This sofa is so comfortable!" She begged which surprised the king, for the girl never begged.

Caspian sighted.

"Please!" She repeated, almost pouting.

Caspian closed his eyes.

"Just for tonight." He finally said.

"YES!" The girl exclaimed

"But you can't leave the cabin tomorrow morning until I come for you." He explained "I don't want troubles with Drinian."

"Aren't you the king?" She asked rolling her eyes.

"Yes, but not for that I will disrespect the position of my crew." He pointed at her " You can't come out until I come for you, okay?"

"Alright." The girl sang as she jumped on the sofa. "Feel free to close the door after you leave." She said getting comfortable.

Caspian smiled and did so.

"Isn't it weird that we haven't seen Elle all morning?" Lucy asked everyone as they were having breakfast the following day.

Lucy saw Caspian choking with his food before excusing himself, standing up and walking to Drinian's cabin."

"Don't invoke the devil" Edmund joked.

"Don't be rude." Eustace said "That girl looks to me like the sanest person in the entire float…a bit childish and angry…"

"She calls you Gustave and Mr. Brows" Lucy retorted. "She's always looking for fight or is hiding"

"At least she's not asking about green mists, islands with weird names and a talking lion" Eustace retorted back.

"May I eat my breakfast in peace?" Edmund asked before going back to his soup.

Lucy looked at Phineas, sitting by her. He hadn't said a single word that morning and had barely touched his food.

Lucy half smiled knowing how to cheer him up.

"Hey, Phin. Would you like to go and find Reep? Maybe he could teach us another of his lullabies."

"I'm sorry." Caspian walked through the deck after the girl.

" _All this time I was wasting hoping you would come around_ " The girl had suddenly turned around and was poking him on the chest " _I've been giving out chances every time and all you do is let me down_ "

"What're you talking about? What chances?" Caspian frowned at the girl who had started rhyming.

" _And it's taken me this long, Caspian_ " She made a gesture with her index and thumb " _but I figured you out_ "

His face contorted with confusion.

" _And you're thinking we'll be fine again but not this time around_ " She shook her head once " _You don't have to call anymore_ " She shook it again " _I won't pick up the phone._ "

"Phone?" Caspian asked her.

" _This is the last straw_ " She crunched her face with hurt, and Caspian worried.

Had he really offended her that much when he forgot to take her out of the cabin?

" _Don't want to hurt anymore_ " Yes, he had. " _And you can tell me that you're sorry_ " She started singing.

Wait, singing? At least it sounded like that. She was awful, not like Phineas at all.

" _But I don't believe you, baby, like I did before_ "

Had she called him baby?

" _You're not sorry, no, no, no, no_ " She shook her head and took a deep breath " I finished" She said.

"What was that?" Caspian asked her.

"That was me singing " _You're not sorry_ " from _Taylor Swift_. You forgot about me!" She exclaimed.

Caspian looked around. They were making a scene.

"Calm down" He muttered "Please?"

"Puh-lease?!" She exclaimed "I was forgotten in a room all morning. While everyone had a delicious breakfast I was starving, waiting for you!"

"Next time sleep in your bedroom and problem solved" He told her, and started walking away.

"HEY!" Elle called him. "Hey! I'm not done with you yet! After what you did to me!"

Caspian walked back at her, feeling embarrassed of the crew hearing the girl yelling at his back.

"What?" Caspian asked with exasperation through his teeth.

Elle crossed her arms.

"The least you could do is bring me some extra food." She said.

"Have your thought what will you do if don't stay in Narnia?" Phineas asked Lucy.

Both kids were bored to hell and back.

"I was thinking in maybe studying literature." Lucy murmured "If I can't stay in Narnia, maybe I could bring some magic to our world through the books I could write."

"That sounds nice" Phineas said.

"Such a shame you're a woman, cousin" Lucy saw Eustace towering over her and Phin. "Who would buy your fantasy books?"

"Haven't you heard about _J.K. Rowling_?" Phin asked him.

5 days! 5 days they had been on that bloody ship, in a row, and Elle couldn't stand it anymore. She needed to feel something else behind her feet that wasn't wood. Sand, dirt, mud...whatever. She was so sick of being at sea.

Even harder was to avoid the uncomfortable silence that filled her whenever she stumbled into Phineas. She didn't know what to say yet, so she would just ignore him and walked away, feeling even worse. She needed to do something or she was going to die.

"Do you want to spar?" Edmund appeared out of nowhere like an angel fallen from heaven and took her out of her boredom for the following days.


	33. Are you alright, Phineas?

13.

"Are you alright, Phineas?"

He was back where he had started. Alone sitting near the head of the ship when the mouse appeared next to him.

Phineas rubbed his eyes and cleaned the tears from his face.

"Yes, yes." He said quickly, deepening his voice.

Reep sighted.

"I don't think you are, child"

Phineas embraced himself.

"I hate to be so weak. I've always been weak" He muttered.

"Hey," Reep put a hand on his shoulder "we all started being weak, you know?"

Phineas smiled at him and nodded.

"I miss my mom." He confessed "I've never been away from her for more than two days." His fingers started to move nervously. "I haven't seen her in more than 10 days." Phineas shook his head "I really am a German crybaby. I'm 14, for god's sake. Edmund was 14 when he fled into a Telmarine fortress..."

Reep smiled at him.

"Your moment to prove yourself will arrive soon, kid. I'm sure of it." The mouse told him "And it's not wrong showing vulnerability sometimes, you're a human after all."

Phineas smiled at him.

"I'm tall when I'm young and I'm short when I'm old, what am I, Caspian?" The girl repeated exasperated.

Caspian grasped his head as he listened to the girl.

"Elle" He took her by the shoulders "what do you think about going to Phineas. Sort things out between you two?"

"Answer me first." She spat "Coward"

Actually, Caspian didn't know how to answer so he had tried to get rid of her.

"Why don't you go and spar with Edmund? I sharpened a couple of swords this morning."

"He's busy with Lucy" She rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Caspian. I know what you're trying to do."

"And that is?"

"Escaping." She scowled "I thought you were better than that."

"Fine, fine!" He exclaimed and cringed as he said the following: "A candle!"

He had closed his eyes in shame, knowing there was no weight her riddle could be solved with something as stupid as that. He opened his eyes and find the girl smiling. She put her hands on his cheeks and started moving his head.

"You did it! You did it!" She said between her teeth with a smile. She let her go and laughed. Actually laughed.

Caspian had forgotten how it felt to feel one's heart beating while seeing someone else's smile.

It was their 11th night in a row at sea when Edmund and Elle found themselves in the crow's nest again.

He had been telling her about her mother's time in Narnia. About how they had met her, and Caspian, how they had battled in Beruna and at Aslan's How and how her mother had been brave and helped Lucy while she had tried to find Aslan on the woods, while Peter was risking his life against Miraz. He told her everything.

"I left for a week before the coronation and searched for En behind every tree, under every rock, over every mountain of Narnia... The morning following the coronation Lucy and Edna came to us with a discovery. She was En's daughter. You should've seen it." He smiled "The breakfast table became a chaos and Caspian's face was priceless, he didn't understand what was happening."

Edmund saw the girl smiling at the mention of her recent friend.

"How was it?" Elle asked him "Discovering everything about _nonna_? It must've been hard to know that she had made a life..."

"It was hard..." Edmund interrupted "When Edna explained everything to me I..." He frowned remembering the state he had been in. "It was the worst night of my life, yet at the same time..." He took the photograph out of his pocket. "It was nice to know she was alright."

Elle looked at him with a sincere smile.

"Do you still love her?" She asked.

Edmund smiled. It was a question he asked himself very day.

"I'll always love her." He answered "But..." he hesitated unsure to confess the girl what he had been thinking for some time now and that hadn't told anyone "I think that this longing" He took a grip of his chest "I feel inside is because the reason of why I lived for so many years one day suddenly disappeared..."

Elle nodded.

"You promised her to protect her and take care of her" she recited as if she was remembering a phrase that she had heard a thousand times before "always"

"It was more than that, you see" His head tilted "I said I was fine, but I always felt so... guilty. My promise meant to me more than what it meant to her. I-" He lowered his voice "I wanted her to have everything, I wanted her to never miss anything, to be the happiest person alive..." He didn't recognize his own voice. "When I think about En, I feel like I'm talking about a long-distance friend now...but when I remember my promise, I remember the love..."

"You miss the memories" Elle muttered "not the person itself." Edmund didn't answer "Of course, you would. She was your light in many ways, for many years" she frowned in thought "you love the old her. You love the Enola of your past live..."

"But she's gone. She had a family, she matured and grow up." Edmund added. "Only after I left Narnia for the second time I understood what Aslan had once told me..." he gulped "he said that what I would get for what I did to En would be my penance. He wasn't talking about the guilt. He was talking about that... powerful feeling of protection, friendship, respect and love that I had always felt for her. I knew she would be okay, for my talk with Edna, and I realized that my mission was complete…kind of, but I too needed to live." He sighted and looked at Elle "And I have, tried at least. Every now and then the memories make me feel emotional, but as long as she is fine I can keep up with my life."

They sat there in silence for a few minutes.

"What I told you...the first day we met" Elle muttered "I lied... Sorry"

Edmund sighted. Of course, she had lied, it took him some time to realize the methods of the girl to hurt others but when he did he know En was alright. Older, just as the life cycle demands, but alright.

"The past is past" He murmured and put an arm around Elle's shoulders in camaraderie.

Elle woke up feeling the emptiness she'd been feeling inside her chest for days.

Absence. The absence of her brother in her life. She'd had enough of the break they were going through. Elle had elongated it because she wasn't sure still about what she thought, about her feelings about it, but... she kinda missed her brother. So that morning of the 12th day at sea she walked out of the Caspian's chambers, after a cold bath and looked for her brother. He was sitting on the stairs, surprisingly, alone. The kid was so popular around, unlike her, that he was rarely alone. Elle walked to him. He had his eyes down, on his iPod, and was using his earphones. He glanced up and saw her coming to him. Elle was about to raise a hand for an awkward "hello" when he pulled his earphones off and stood up. She stopped walking as both siblings crossed eyes.

Then he walked away. Away from her.

The emptiness inside her chest only grew stronger as she saw the back of his blonde hair moving with the wind.

That same day, Drinian had been reporting Caspian the current situation of the Dawn Treader after 12 years in the sea, when certain bad-tempered girl walked into the cabin, ignoring the two men talking and jumped on the sofa, her arms crossed.

"We'll continue this conversation later, captain" Caspian said eyeing the frowning lady "Keep up with the hard work"

Drinian bowed and walked out of the cabin, closing the door after him.

The king sighted as he turned around and squatted next to the sofa.

"What is it now?" He asked as the girl put an arm over her eyes.

"I'm the worst. Phineas is avoiding me" She said in a miserable voice.

"Why do you say that?" Caspian knew how much the boy had wanted to speak to Elle. Phineas himself had told him a week before.

"I've tried twice today, but every time I get near him he turns around and escapes." She groaned.

"Have you tried calling him?"

"Calling him?" She put her arm down. "Did he bring his cellphone too?" She looked at Caspian.

"I mean..." He tilted his head to see her better "walk to him and call his name. Maybe if he hears you he won't try to escape again." he shrugged.

The girl looked at the air in thought, then she started to smile.

"I'll try that" She frowned still smiling "but, tomorrow. I've had enough humiliation for a day." She sighted and put the back of her hand on her forehead. "Hey, Caspian, do I feel hot?"

Caspian blinked in strangeness after the change of topic.

"Why do you ask?" He asked.

"Yesterday, I stayed up all night with Ed" She explained her hand now on her cheek "up in the crow's nest" Caspian raised an eyebrow hearing at the information.

"What were you two doing up there?" He asked uncomfortably.

"Just talking." She waved her hand as if it wasn't important. "The thing is, it was cold. And my throat is hurting, so is my head. Am I hot?" She looked at him worried.

Caspian hesitated. She only wanted him to give a second opinion about her temperature. Why was he feeling nervous as he raised a hand to her forehead?

It felt smooth and soft, and...

"You're cold" He muttered taking his hand away, quickly.

"Really?" She frowned. "I feel like dying."

"Maybe you're just exhausted." He stood up "Why don't you just go to my room and rest for a while?"

"I might as well rest in here." She groaned "I don't think I can make it to the bed."

Caspian sighted and turned around. But instead of leaving like he thought he would, he squat down again.

"Up" He said.

Elle quickly sat up on the sofa.

"Oh my god! Are your really doing what I think you're doing?" She asked in an entertained voice.

"Come on before I regret it" He shook his head in disbelief.

"Jeez" She climbed up on his back "You're the best" She murmured next to his ear.

"Hey, uh..." Lucy, by the hand with Gael, arrived where her friends were having breakfast. Caspian, Edmund, Eustace and Phineas looked up at her "I, uh..." She saw as Gael left to meet with her father. Her eyes went back to her friends. "I believe Elle is ill"

Edmund lowered his plate.

"You believe?" He asked.

"She's wouldn't come out of bed and has a raspy voice. Maybe it's a cold." She frowned.

"She's probably feeling lazy" Phineas said not raising his gaze. "Trying to attract attention"

"I don't know, Phin." Lucy crunched her nose "She does look off-color."

Caspian sighted. Edmund looked at him.

"We'll take care of it, Lu." Her brother said.


	34. What could be worse than catching a cold

14.

What could be worse than catching a cold in Narnia?

Oh right, getting your period, while catching a cold in Narnia. At least she didn't have to be walking around until it passed and, thank god, she had Lucy to instruct her in Narnia's ways to control the female period. Elle was more worried for the sore throat she felt.

After the ship's healer had left, Caspian sat in front of her on the bed. God, she probably looked awful. Her hair was more puffed up than usual, she felt all sweaty in the white sleep dress with long sleeves, and, after checking in a mirror, she looked pale.

"I told you I was dying" The voice coming out of her, scared her. She now sounded like the old version of the Evil queen of Snow White. She closed her eyes. "I hate Narnia" She groaned, or at least she tried.

"Calm down, our healer said you'll be fine by the morning."

But how could that be true? She had ended up in a bed from one day to another. What if the following day she ended up dead? Caspian seemed to read her thoughts.

"You are not dying" The idea seemed to be funny for him. "Lucy, Ed and me will be checking up on you..."

"What 'bout, Phin?" Elle asked hoarsely.

Caspian stayed in silence.

"He thinks I'm fooling around, doesn't he?" She asked and Caspian nodded. "That's okay. I don't want to bother him with this. I've bothered him enough all his life." She joked with lack of cheerfulness. "Besides you promised I'd be fine by the morning..."

"I said..." He corrected.

"Whatever." She closed her eyes. God, her head was throbbing, she had never felt that sick only for a flu. Her throat hurted every time she talked, she didn't want to keep doing it "Hey, could you hand me one of those books?" She pointed at the bookshelf in front of the bed. "If I'm gonna be here, the least I can do is try and read something"

"Sure" Caspian stood up and walked to the shelf "Which one would you like?"

"Well, I haven't had the pleasure of reading Narnian literature. Whichever is okay"

Caspian took a small one.

"I like this one. It has..." He hesitated "fairytales and bedtime stories for kids, but..."

"Don't worry" She cleared her throat "You're talking to the girl who keeps reading _Peter Pan_ and the _Grimm's brothers_." She smiled. "I... secretly, like fairytales too" Caspian walked back to the bed and sat down. "Don't ever tell Phineas." She took the book from his hand.

Caspian smiled with confusion.

"If you like fairytales, why didn't you like your mother's stories about this place?"

"Duh, because I hate Narnia" She said before opening the book.

"Edmund!" A voice called him before he could open the door of Caspian's bedroom. He turned around. It was Phineas.

"What is it?" The 16-year-old asked him.

"I just..." He saw the blonde boy fidgeting with his fingers "I wanted to ask you if she's okay."

"I haven't seen her yet." Edmund raised his eyebrows. "You should ask Caspian, he came before me."

Phineas nodded and was about to leave but Edmund took his shoulder.

"Hey, why don't you just come inside and see her by yourself?"

"I...I, uh, I don't think she might like that" Phineas explained before disappearing.

Edmund walked into the room and found that it was dark. The candles that had illuminated it were long finished. He walked to a drawer and took out a few new candles more. He might've just opened the curtains to let in some light from the clouded sky from the outside. But the day was cold, and Elle needed warmth. So he stocked to the candles. When he lighted on enough he walked to the bed.

Elle was asleep. She was laying sideways, with an arm under the pillow and the other one over an open book.

Edmund reached to touch her cheek. She was too hot. How was she bed ridden when he was alright after spending a night out in the cold night wind too? He had thought that maybe in the future, they had more sophisticated vaccines against the flu...but it seemed that in Narnia everyone was equally exposed.

Anyways, she was hot. She had stayed all the morning and afternoon in the bed and was still bad.

"Sickness won't disappear in a day, sweetie." He remembered his mother telling him once. "You have to wait for the medicine to take effect"

Edmund's hand rested on the girl's cheek for more time. He took a strand of hair out of her face.

He remembered how he had reacted when he first met the girl. He had thought that she looked a bit crazy...but her attitude remained interesting for him, even after their "little" discussion.

She had too much spirit, usually used for the wrong reasons, but still. She wasn't like Edna at all. She lacked the sweetness, the warmth of her mother. Elle was more audacious, bold, dauntless, fearless and strong willed... like Enola.

That's what had made Edmund get interested in her from the beginning. She looked nothing like her grandmother, her nonna, like Elle would say. Edmund had always seen En like a porcelain doll; with her snow-white skin, silver eyes and red lips, her perfect 1940s long thick brown curls, her delicate features and small body frame. Even with the limp, that he discovered from Edna, had disappeared after she got back to America. And Elle looked more like the new superhero of the comics in England, Superwoman. Her facial features where strong, especially her jaw, and so looked her body. Her bronze skin, dark eyes and dark hair gave her a powerful and hard façade. The only thing she had physically taken from Edna was her wavy her, but even that was different for Elle's hair was always sponged and out of place, making it look wavier than her mother's.

Yeah, it was Enola's memory that brought him near Elle at the beginning, but soon he discovered himself liking the company of the girl. She had inherited certain traits from her grandmother, of course, but Elle was so much more than that. She was unique in her own way. How she would try to sound and look "cool" all the time, how she fought for what she believed in, even if it was wrong, how she would try to make things right even though she was not comfortable with it only to make others indirectly happy. Also, all the weird faces she did and the funny ways she spoke. Her dark humor and sarcasm... Sometimes you would only want to strangle her for how rude, and mean, and spoiled she was and next you would be laughing with her...

Edmund retired his hand and sat there for a while, hearing the heavy breathing of the girl.

He couldn't believe how much he had trusted this girl the last few days than he hadn't to anyone else in the past years. He felt that he could tell her anything, his feelings, his thoughts, and that she wouldn't look at him in pity. No, she would understand, even mock at him at times, but that would only make it better. She knew how to ease the tension...at least his. She could be the worst person to the world, but she'd been nothing but a good friend to him.

That's why Edmund's elbows went down to his knees and hid his face on his hands.

"She'll leave too, Edmund" He repeated for a thousand time inside his head. "She'll leave you too."

Lucy walked into the room just the Edmund was going out.

"Are you sure you want to stay all night with her?" Edmund asked him in his way out. "Can't it be contagious?"

Lucy smiled.

"I'll be alright, Edmund" She put a reassuring hand on her arm. "Hopefully, she'll sleep all night so I don't get into trouble with her."

"Yeah, about that..." Edmund started walking backwards. "she slept all afternoon. I don't think she'll rest at night. Good luck."

Lucy raised her brows and took a deep breath before walking into the room. It was slightly illuminated by candles. She saw the girl laying on the bed rubbing her eyes, waking up, exactly when Lucy neared her.

"Dear Aslan" Lucy thought wishing for a peaceful night along Elle.

The dark-haired girl barely acknowledged her when she sat on a chair by the bed. Probably she felt that bad... no, that was just the way Elle was. Lucy opened the book she was carrying and when her eyes raised she saw Elle with an open book too.

"What're you reading?" Lucy asked her with sincere curiosity.

Elle raised the book for Lucy to see the cover.

"The worst fairytale book for children ever" The croaky voice that came out of Elle made Lucy flinch of pain. "I hate Narnia"

Lucy sighted

"You sound like yourself, yet not like you at all." Lu shook her head. "Let me see."

Elle gave her the book and Lucy look through the pages.

"Why don't you like it?" Lucy asked in thought "It has beautiful images..."

"I found this poem... it makes me feel depressed instead of wanting me to 'come to Narnia'" Elle crossed her weak arms.

"What was it about?" Lucy asked still admiring the beautiful and old illustrations of the little book.

"Page 23" Elle said before coughing "God, I hate Narnia" She repeated as if the cough had been Narnia's fault.

Lucy giggled at Elle, while looked for the face.

"Here it is" Lucy exclaimed "The withered Nar..." she stopped mid-sentence.

"Go ahead." Elle said and coughed again "I so hate Narnia" she murmured.

"The withered Narnian rose" Lucy frowned, her eyes wide opened.

"Read it, so you see what I'm talking about." Elle rolled her eyes "Poor Narnian kids. Out loud, please."

Lucy's lips trembled as she tried to start reading. This couldn't be about... The first sentence answered her unasked question.

"Once upon a time..." Lucy cleared her throat:

" _There lived a little girl in Cair Paravel_

 _Swinging down a tree... her siblings would wait_

 _Aching for the years she still did not had_

 _Hoping for the days she would too be nomad_

 _'_ _There is nothing you're missing, sweet, little child'_

 _The prettiest of all three sisters would beguiled_

 _But soon the swinging girl's day finally arrived_

 _From a young infant daisy to rose she had thrived_

 _She waltz down the floor, wearing a scarlet gown_

 _Filled with dreams of doing so until dawn_

 _But screams of sorrow and despair were heard_

 _Her brother had left her still a new bird_

 _Cold shoulders for the swinging girl who still swings_

 _No match could she ever be for Narnia's king_

 _The Narnian rose hide and escaped, reconciling_

 _While the south kingdom kept up fake smiling_

 _The withered Narnian rose they would call her_

 _And while among friends she swung, the real fools they were_

 _She swung and swug her way to the King's heart_

 _Made by Aslan, together, a Just work of art_

 _The withered Narnian rose heard others murmurs never_

 _For her king even with swinging accepted_

 _To take her as his bride and love her forever._ '"

Lucy's heart thumped inside her chest. She couldn't believe it.

"Depressive, huh?" She had forgotten that she wasn't alone.

"It's..." Lucy started.

"Weird and depressive" Elle stated, raising her chin "I may not know much about poetry, but I know that's not the way they do it in my time."

"It's sad...but true" Lucy muttered looking at nothing specifically.

"You're saying?" Elle asked her.

Lucy shook her head going back to reality.

"Do you think I could borrow the book after you?" Lucy asked. Maybe she could find something more about Narnia's golden age in it.

"Ask Caspian" The girl reaches for the book "It's his"

Lucy smiled, remembering the last rhymes of the poem.

" _A Just work of art_ " Lucy murmured in enchantment.

Maybe one-day Aslan would make a work of art with Lucy too, and her love story would appear in a fairytale book.


	35. Elle was worse

15.

Elle was worse. How could she be worse?

Caspian was standing right behind the healer as the man took Elle's pulse.

"I don't understand." The man murmured "It's getting worse." He looked at his king. "She was supposed to get better with what I gave her, but... it's as if it hadn't work at all. And if I give it to her again and it doesn't work again..."

"Just try" Edmund's voice raised from behind Caspian. The boy had a hard grip on the chair in front of him.

And so, the healer did.

"This may not sound too good, but..." He walked at Caspian after he gave the unconscious Elle the medicine. "You shouldn't stay for too long inside this room, your majesty." Then he looked at Edmund "Neither do you, High King Edmund."

Caspian gulped.

"Thanks, Asa" Caspian patted the man's back before he left.

"What're we doing now?" Edmund asked suddenly taking a possessive stance Caspian didn't like. "You heard him, she needs to be taken care off, change the cloths with water to control the temperature. Yet no one should be here..."

"I'll stay with her." Caspian said.

Edmund frowned.

"Maybe I'll stay with her too"

Caspian frowned back.

"No one else is allowed to walk in here" Caspian pointed at him. "No one"

" _For reasons beyond my comprehension_ " Eustace wrote that night on his diary " _We have taken the advice from the senile old coup, who doesn't possess a razor, and walks around on a dressing gown. So we're back in the bathtub and at lost in the tempest. Brilliant! 14 days of being tossed like a pancake, not the slightest sight of land. The only consolation is that everyone is finally as miserable as I am_." He wrote " _Especially today. The yelling girl is bed ridden. Caspian and Edmund have spent all day by her bed, probably making puppy eyes at her while the woman is unconscious. The amazing singer, but lacking of intelligence, Phineas made a scene today, when he was not allowed to walk inside of that disease filled room. Cousin Lucy went after him to dry his girly tears as usual. Even she does not approve the way cousin Edmund and the make-believe king are handling things around here. So, yes, everyone in the ship is miserable. Except for that show-off talking rat. He is one of the annoying 'glass is always half full' part..."_

"I know what Caspian said but..."

"I don't know, Lu. Caspian said no one." Edmund shielded with his body the entrance to the room.

"Since when do you listen to every word someone else says?" Lucy asked in exasperation "Listen, it all takes a couple of minutes..."

"She's barely conscious, Lu. She's burning up" Edmund crossed his arms "Why do you even want to get inside?"

Lucy sighted and looked directly at her brother's eyes.

"It's a girls' thing" She muttered.

Edmund gulped.

"I'll give you three." He said as he walked away from the door. "I'll go to Caspian, he had a meeting with Drinian. But I'll come back and I want you out before I do." He turned one last time before actually leaving "Not a word to Phineas"

Lucy rolled her eyes and walked inside. She gasped at the view she faced in the bed.

"Elle?" Lucy asked her face wrinkling with worry "I saw you weren't fine in the morning, but..."

"I told you...all..." The girl said between hard breathings. Her voice barely audible "I'm gonna die"

"You sure look like it. How did this happen so quickly?" Lucy knew that, sure the girl didn't have the Black Plague, but the pale color on the girl's body was uncharacteristic of her, her lips where white, dark circles under her eyes and her skin was catching fire when Lucy put a hand on her forehead "I don't think this is just a sore throat"

"I don't think so too. I... believe it was...in the beginning...but now...there's something else" Elle's eyes wandered around the room "lurking around this room..."

"What do you mean?" Lucy worried that the girl was now hallucinating.

"I told Caspian...he says I shouldn't be pessimistic..." Elle coughed "I told him...he's an idiot."

Lucy smiled, even looking like death, Elle sure knew how to handle herself around the boys.

"This is my worst nightmare, Lu." Elle coughed again, weakened. "Dying...away from home...away from my family..." She rubbed her tears of sickness "weak."

"You're not dying, Elle!" Lucy exclaimed "Hopefully, we'll soon find the blue star and Romandu's island. With the sword's power maybe, we can..."

"That's was Caspian says..."

Lucy sighted, listening the defeated tone in the girl. She soon remembered why she had come.

"I actually came for..." Lucy hesitated.

"Oh"

"Yeah, thought you could use some help" Lucy nodded thankful of not having to say it out loud.

It was done quickly. And Elle thanked her a thousand times. The girl was so weak she couldn't sit up straight.

"I should be going or Ed will get mad" Lucy smiled at her one last time before walking to the door.

"Thanks, Lu" The girl murmured behind her.

"Any time." Lucy smiled at her one last time before walking out.

"You've been with her all afternoon, Ed" Caspian smiled between his teeth. "You should go and rest..."

"I'm totally fine, Caspian" Edmund narrowed his eyes "You should better go with Drinian... check on the crew..."

"But you seriously need to take a break, go and have something for diner"

Lucy raised her hands, it had started raining and both men were politely arguing, outside of Caspian's chambers, as if it was a sunny day,

"I took an apple on my way to the cabin..."

"An apple is not enough, you might get sick and we don't want that too."

"Ed, Caspian?" Lucy asked under the rain.

"Believe me, I can take care of myself, Caspian."

"But, clearly you can't with others" The older man spoke up, his fake smile disappearing.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Edmund argued.

"You left her and allowed someone to walk inside when I told you not to ..."

"Since when do I listen to every word someone else says?" Edmund interrupted, making Lucy cringe when she heard her own words on his brother.

"Ed, Caspian!" Lucy raised her voice.

"You're being irrational!" Caspian exclaimed in exasperation. "It's my turn and you know it!"

"You have more important things to do, that's all I'm saying" Ed raised his voice too.

"People!" Lucy yelled over the rain. The two men looked at her.

"What?!" They exclaimed in one voice.

"Stop arguing under the rain or I'll be the one taking care of all you three!" Lucy looked at Caspian "You! You do have important things to do as the Dawn Treader's commander!" She looked at Edmund "And you Edmund! You've been inside this room all day, you do need a proper meal!" Lucy shook her head still trying, and failing, to cover herself from the raindrops with her bare hands. "Stop acting all possessive with Elle, the girl's sick in there, for Aslan's mane!"

Edmund and Caspian looked at her for a few seconds and then looked at each other. They started laughing.

"Who's arguing, Lu?" Edmund snorted

"We were just having a conversation." Caspian told her awkwardly "that's all."

Lucy couldn't believe her ears. Her jaw dropped.

"Fine." She shook her head again "Who's taking care of her now?"

"Me" Both men said in one voice again.

Lucy rolled her eyes and walked to the captain's cabin, were Gael and her would spend the night.

"Men!" She muttered under her breath, as she walked inside the cabin totally wet.

"What is it, Lu?" The little girl called her from the sofa inside the room.

"It's nothing, Gael" She answered kindly smiling at the girl. "Let us have some rest"

And so, the two girls got ready to sleep, Gael on the sofa, and Lucy on the floor over a pile of sheets for her to be comfortable.

But minutes passed, and by hearing the soft snorts coming from Gael, Lucy could tell the girl was already sleep, yet the British girl couldn't sleep. There were so many things in her head, but mostly she was thinking about Caspian and Edmund.

How could they be so... willing to be around a mean girl? Yeah, she was sick, too sick, but their willingness to be with her was beyond that sickness. They actually were fighting to spend time with the girl in her moment of weakness.

"She's a beauty" Lucy thought.

Maybe it was true what she had heard the girls from her secondary school saying. Men really only cared about the looks. Why else would they want to be around her?

"Would they act the same way if I was the one sick?" She thought.

" _No_ " a voice in her head answered.

Because Lucy was no beauty. At least she thought that way. If she were, men would be kneeling around her bed too... With a trembling hand, Lucy took out the sheet of paper she had been carrying with her for many days. It was the sheet she had ripped off from the book of incantations from Coriakin's library.

" _Transform my reflection, cast into affection_ " she read " _lashes, lips and complexion. Let me like whom I agree, cause more beauty over me._ "

She stood up from her temporary bed and walked to the body mirror in front of her.

She looked at herself, and observed how slowly her reflection started turning into Susan's again, just like it had in Coriakin's library.

She was a beautiful, she smiled at the mirror. But there was something else this, there was music, coming from the mirror. She pushed it and found herself being welcomed in a familiar place. She had never been personally there, but because of Peter and Susan's letters she had always felt as if she'd been there.

America.

She was greeted by several American men and women, as she walked through the gardens, surrounded by cheerful music from the 40s. It reminded Lucy of the old times, before the war started, when there was peace in Finchley.

"Edmund!" She exclaimed when his brother walked to him, and took his arm.

"You're beautiful, sister" Lucy smiled at the compliment of her brother.

"As always" Their oldest brother joined them and she took his arm with her other arm.

"Peter!" She exclaimed

"Excuse me Miss," A man with a large camera neared them "Can I get a photo?"

"Mother's gonna love this," Peter said "all her children in one picture."

She, Susan, frowned.

"Smile!" The man in front of them said.

"Hang on." Susan asked at her smiling brothers "Where am I?" She smiled "I mean where's Lucy?"

"Lucy?" Edmund asked with a smile "who's Lucy?"

She tried to move away, when she noticed something was not right in that place.

"Susan," Peter took a strong hold on her "what's wrong?"

"Come on now Miss." The man fixes his camera to take a second picture "A nice big smile!"

"Edmund, I'm not sure about this." Lucy said uncomfortably "I think I want to go back."

"Go back where?" He looked at her

"To Narnia!"

"What is Narnia?" He asked

"What's going on?!" She exclaimed, starting to get nervous and scared. "Where am I and Phineas?! Where's Elle? She was sick!"

"Who's Elle, Susan?" Edmund asked frowning

"Maybe she's been under the sun for too long." Peter meddled.

"En's granddaughter!" Lucy, looking like Susan, looked at Peter. "Peter, what about Edna?!"

Peter shook his head misunderstanding.

"Stop this!" She yelled at the man in front of her.

The flash of the camera blinded her just when she covered her face with her hands. When she took them away, she was on the verge of tears, her true reflection looking back at her.

"Lucy" A voice grumbled next to her. Inside of the captain's cabin again...

"Aslan?" She asked as she watched the great lion appearing in the mirror. She turned around to see him face to face but he wasn't there. Lucy looked back at the mirror, and there he was. He could only be seen through the reflection.

"What have you done, child?" The deep voice of the lion asked her.

"I don't know," She answered, her voice coming out weakly "but that was awful."

"But you chose it, Lucy." The lion told her by her ear.

"I didn't mean to choose all that." She exclaimed in terror "I just wanted to be as beautiful like Susan. Like En, Ed and Elle. That's all." She muttered.

"You wished yourself away, and with it, much more." Aslan explained "Your brothers and sisters wouldn't know Narnia without you, Lucy. You discovered it first, remember? Without you and your siblings, Enola would've never had a reason to come to Narnia...Elle and Phineas, even Edna wouldn't have probably born."

"I'm so sorry." She said.

"You doubt your value," The great lion said "don't run from who you are."

"ASLAN!" Lucy sat up from her floor bed.

She looked around as the thunder stroked out from the window. She had fallen asleep, with the sheet with the incantation extended over her. It had all been a nightmare.

She crumpled the piece of paper and threw it away.


	36. Edmund had been resting

16.

Edmund had been resting alone over his hammock when he heard the voice. Caspian wasn't around for he was guarding Elle all night, just as Edmund had done all day.

"Edmund." The voice murmured.

He looked at the source and saw Jadis, colossal and terrifyingly beautiful. Her skin was green and a green smoke was surrounding her.

"Come with me." She extended her arm "Join me."

"Edmund?"

The young man sat up, raising his sword, but the greenish White Witch was gone. He found his young sister standing by his resting place, instead.

"Lucy." He sighted.

A thunder rumbled above them.

"I can't sleep." Lucy confessed.

"Let me guess." Edmund announced "Bad dream?" Lucy didn't answer, she didn't have to answer. "So, either we're all going mad," Edmund said as a terrified Phineas walked into the room "or something is playing with our minds." He laid down again, his heart racing faster than ever before.

Next morning, after a night filled with nightmares where he was abandoned by his sister just as he was about to fall from a great height, Phineas walked out of the deck, tired, and towards Caspian who had his telescope extended in front of him.

"An island" Phineas said out loud.

"Yes," Caspian said taking down the telescope "that's where we are going."

"What about Elle?" Phineas asked "How is she?"

Caspian sighted and rubbed his eyes. He had spent all night taking care of the girl.

"Same as yesterday. Edmund's with her" He answered "Drinian will stay. And so, will Asa, the healer"

Phineas nodded.

"Then I want to go too" Caspian gave him a look "You've been taking care of my sister...if there's anything I can help you with I will."

Caspian seemed to think about it for a minute, but nodded at the end.

"I doubt the Lord stopped here, there is no sign of anything living." The annoying talking mouse's voice raised over the two boats as they moved toward the bloody island"

"Right. Well, once you have got on shore, take your men for food and water." The make-believe king replied on the boat where Eustace was traveling. "The three of us will look for clues."

"You mean the four of us?" Eustace raised his voice, gaining the looks of everyone in the boat. He hated to always be forgotten. "Come on, please don't send me back to the rat."

"I heard that!" The mouse said from the other boat.

"Big ears." Eustace muttered under his breath

"I heard that too." The mouse said, making his cousins, Caspian and the other blonde boy smiled after days of worries.

"Phineas will stay with you" Caspian told him and Eustace shrugged. He didn't dislike the crybaby as much as he disliked the rat.

"Why are we hiding?" Phineas asked the other blonde kid as they peered between a pair of boulders to the crew.

He didn't answer as he started walking away. Phineas sighted, suddenly wishing he hadn't told Caspian he would help him with anything he needed.

"They went...where?" Elle clenched her teeth with the little energy she still had.

She had woken up, being visited by Lucy. The younger girl hadn't told her they were leaving. After a nap she found Asa, the healer next to her. He told her that their majesties had left to visit an island looking for food.

"Along with the two blonde boys and part of the crew." He had said.

Elle couldn't believe no one had told her they were leaving. Even worse, Phineas was leaving too, and for previous experiences she knew Narnia was no safe place for her brother. She had groaned as she tried to sat up from the bed.

"What do you think you're doing miss?" Asa had asked her.

"What'cha think?" She muttered "Going after my brother... dude."

"But you can't!" Asa exclaimed "They're long gone; besides you can barely sit up!"

Elle let herself fall again on the bed.

"You're right" She frowned and put a hand on her forehead "I think... I just got nauseous" She whined "Do you think...maybe you could...bring me a bucket?"

The man ran off the room as he saw her retching.

"So innocent" She smirked as she tried again to stand up.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, she realized how weak she really was. Helping herself with the bed she stood up, now real nausea filling her. But no, she couldn't stay in bed while Phineas was out there playing the hero.

"So... stupid" She mumbled as she gave her first steps after days laying on the bed.

God, every step she took, her head hammered and the world would spin around. But she had to get to Phineas. She had to.

Unfortunately, she left a little gift for Asa on her way out of the room. He would eventually find that his bucket had arrived too late.

"What is that?" Lucy heard Caspian asked looking down at the lake inside the cavern they had gotten into using a rope.

"I don't know." Edmund answered looking down too. He was the closest to the figure under water "Looks like some kind of a gold statue." His brother said before pulling a branch out of a dry underground tree.

Edmund returned and tried to touch the statue using the branch, but as soon as its tip touched the water it started turning into gold. He let it go, before it could reach him, scared that he would turn into solid gold too. Caspian looked at her and Edmund before kneeling by the pond.

"He must have fallen in." He said.

"Poor man." Lucy walked near the lake too.

"You mean, poor Lord." Edmund saw a golden shield inside the water.

"The crust of Lord Restimar" Caspian's solemn voice said.

"And his sword!" Edmund pointed into the water. It was the only thing under water that hadn't been turned.

"We need it." Caspian stated and Edmund took his sword, the one from the Lord of the Lone Islands.

"Be careful." Lucy said as she understood his intentions of using it to take the other one out of the water. And so, he did, carefully. "Your sword hasn't turn to gold." She noticed as he drew the second sword out.

"Both swords are magical." Caspian said while took Edmund from his other hand, so her brother wouldn't fall into the enchanted lake.

"He mustn't have known what hit him." Lucy said when Caspian took the sword.

"Maybe," Edmund said before resting his sword on the floor "or maybe he was onto something." He was searching for something on the cave's floor.

"What are you talking about?" Caspian asked.

Edmund took a seashell on his hand and partially introduced it into the water. He left it on the floor as it turned into gold, then he raised it in front of his eyes.

"What are you staring at?" Lucy asked, looking at her brother's amazed stare on the seashell.

"Whoever has access to this pool," Ge answered, now intensity filling his voice "could be the most powerful person in the world."

Lucy looked at Caspian with worry and he looked back at her.

"Lucy," Edmund looked at her, ambition surrounding him "we'll be so rich no one can tell us what to do, or who to live with."

"You can't take anything out of Narnia, Edmund." Caspian interrupted him.

"I've done it before." He said eagerly "So has Peter. Who says I can't do it again?"

"I do." The older king stopped him.

Edmund turned to him and took his sword before raising from the floor.

"I am not your subject." Edmund said.

"You have been waiting for this, haven't you?" Caspian narrowed his eyes as Edmund walked to him. "To challenge me. You doubt my leadership!"

"You doubt yourself." Edmund spat.

"You're a child." Caspian scowled at her brother.

"And you're a spineless sap!"

"Edmund?" Lucy meddled, scared with the way her brother was behaving. She reached for him.

"I'm tired of playing second fiddle..." Edmund pushed her away, emotionally hurting Lucy in the way. "First it was Peter, and now it's you! You know I am braver than both of you. Why did you have Peter's sword? I deserve a kingdom of my own! I deserve to rule!" He roared

"This is not only because of that, is it?" Caspian growled under his breath "This is because of something else too"

"Now we're understanding each other" Edmund's mouth twitched "I'll say it one time: Stay" He sneered "away" He took a step towards Caspian "from her!"

"If you think you're so brave...if you think you're the one who deserves her..." Caspian muttered with hate "prove it!" He aggressively pushed Edmund away.

In just a second, his brother had drawn out his sword and both men were clashing swords against each other.

"No!" Lucy yelled walking in the middle of the fight. She looked at Edmund "Stop it!" Then she looked at Caspian "Both of you." Her gaze went back to Edmund "Look at yourselves. Can't you see what's happening?" She kept looking between the two of them "This place has tempted you. It is bewitching you! This is exactly what Coriakin was talking about." She saw Edmund looking in disbelief at his own hand, still carrying the shell. "Let's just get outta here."

She walked away and Caspian was the first one to follow her.

As she climbed up the rope and out of the cave. She realized what her brother's real deepest desires were. Power and…certain girl.

"You shouldn't be out of bed!" Drinian exclaimed as soon as he saw her walking towards him, standing by the helm.

"Okay. Let me explain this very quick." She said as she leaned on the helm to support herself, while the captain took a hold of it so it wouldn't move "You can either drag me into that room again, screaming what's left of my throat out, draining me of my last energies and having to explain to your king that I died of exhaustion because you wouldn't listen to me," She took a deep breath "or you can take me on boat to the island's shore to go and sit calmly over the sand near my brother. There's no in between." She negotiated with the best face she could come up with.

Drinian put a hand on his bald head.

Soon, she found herself in a wooden boat with three men paddling it and taking her to the island.


	37. Oh, yes

17.

"Oh yes," Phineas heard the boy meters in front of him mumbling while he kept being careful with every step he took, afraid of stumbling with the rocky land of the island "follow the imaginary blue star, to the island of Rabandoedoe..."

"Hey!" Phineas called Eustace, hoping he would slow down.

"Like the seven steak knives on the table of a talking lion..."

"They are swords, actually" Phineas interrupted him with a breathy voice.

"Nonsense." Eustace kicked a rock.

Phineas saw Eustace suddenly, stopping and sliding downturns rocky hill.

Phineas ran to where Eustace had been seconds before. He peeked down and saw the boy lying on the ground, a couple meters down.

"You okay?" Phineas called as the younger boy started moving.

"I must be dead!" Eustace exclaimed back to Phineas.

Phineas raised his gaze, still breathing heavily, and noticed what Eustace was talking about.

Gold.

Gold everywhere.

Phineas, open mouthed, tried sliding carefully down the hill. Then he was too surrounded by gold. Golden armors, chests, vessels, jewelry... Eustace stood up beside him, and shook the dirt off of him before running to the nearest pile of golden objects, shimmering in the sunlight. Phineas started following Eustace around, wishing to take a bunch of golden stuff just as the younger kid was doing. He was dumbstruck, that he could feel his heart beating strongly inside of him. He knew he needed to calm down, he was susceptible to asthma attacks for strong emotions. Luckily, he was in his longest streak without one, the last being before coming to Narnia. He had almost had one on Coriakin's island, but he had controlled himself in time.

"You are definitely dead." He heard Eustace saying and saw him pushing a corpse to the floor before taking a thick bracelet from the skeleton's arm and putting it on. "You wouldn't be needing that one, would you?" He said to the bones.

"Hey! There's no need to be rude to the death" Phineas scolded him "There's a lot you can take around here without doing that..." His volume decreased when he saw an open golden box containing inside a thin golden necklace.

He walked towards it and kneeled in front of it. Phineas touched it barely with his fingertips, it felt smooth.

Maybe he could take it for his sick sister... But he never got to take it, because a loud and terrifying growl was heard through the canyon. Phineas stood up, looking up, searching for the source of that terrible noise in the sky...

"Finally, I favorable turn of events for me" Phineas heard Eustace behind him, while the younger kid kept scavenging.

Phineas took a few steps towards the hill they had fallen from, when he heard the clanking of golden treasures falling to the floor. Then a scream of pain. Phineas turned around, his eyes wide opened, as he saw at the younger blonde boy, writhing on the floor.

"Eustace!" Lucy called, looking back at the deserted island "Edmund, I have got a bad feeling." Lucy turned around to see her brother, but in the way her jaw dropped as she saw behind her brother.

"Yes, I've got it too." A girl sneered.

Edmund jumped around and so did Caspian.

"Elle?!" Edmund exclaimed.

"What're you doing out of bed?" Caspian asked before looking at Drinian who was helping the girl to remain standing.

"I'm sorry, your majesty" Drinian bowed.

"I'm just gonna ask this once:" the pale looking girl said, her nostrils flaring "Where-is-my-brother?" She narrowed her eyes.

Edmund looked at Lucy and then back at Elle.

"I'm going to find them." He started walking away.

"I'll come with you." Caspian announced, making Edmund look at him again.

"So am I" Elle's breathy voice raises again.

"You can barely stand up." Caspian told her "You'll slow us down."

"It's my brother, you carelessly left alone to wander around with another kid... Besides" She raised her eyebrows before turning at Lucy "Lucy will help me. Right?"

They had been walking for what seemed hours. Elle could still not believe Lucy had actually agreed to help her sustain herself the whole time. She had to give the girl more credit than she had before.

"Eustace!" Edmund said as he found a burnt-up shoe.

They had found a canyon filled with treasures and traveled it when they found the brown moccasin.

"No!" He exclaimed as he ran to a pile of burnt clothes.

"Edmund!" Lucy cried next to her.

"My cousin" Edmund muttered heartbroken, just when Elle got free of Lucy's grip. Elle saw the girl falling next to Edmund.

"I'm sorry." Elle heard Caspian saying before she started walking away.

Her heart was menacing to come out of her chest. If something had happened to Eustace, then...

"Phineas" She muttered teary eyed, as she walked through a pile of great boulders, stumbling with the golden treasures at her feet.

Before she wouldn't have minded if her brother was missing, not even knowing that her mother would sent her to jail or something. Elle would've threw herself at the gold surrounding her, only thinking about taking it back to Chicago. With it, she would be able to visit Tony whenever she wanted, she would be able to go and live with her dad... But now, it was nothing but garbage getting in her way to find her brother.

"PHINEAS!" She yelled her heart out as she started sobbing.

She fell to her knees, no longer containing the weakness in her body. What if something had happened to him to? She would never forgive herself. She closed her eyes.

And then she heard it, the heavy breathing, the pain groaning. She raised her gaze and looked around, and there, lying by a pile gold, was her brother. She crawled her way to him and saw his face was red.

"Phineas?!" She heard herself panicking. He couldn't breathe! "Where's your inhaler?!" She asked her eyes wide opened.

But he wasn't looking at her, he was suffering right there in front of her. She started crying again.

"HELP! HELP ME!" She cried out taking her brother's upper body on her arms. "He can't breathe!" She was trembling. "He can't breathe" She repeated.

Was that how the two of them would end? Dead on a canyon of a deserted island far away from their home? She knew she would stop breathing the same moment her brother did?

And the worst part? She couldn't feel anything but anger. Anger at her mother and Tony for never telling her the truth, anger at her father for always causing stress to her mother, anger at her grandmother for not insisting her even more with her Narnia stories, anger at her brother for leaving the ship and dying in her arms. But mostly she felt anger towards herself, for making her own life miserable for so many years, for seeing only what she wanted to see, hearing only what she wanted to hear, and making others miserable in the way. Especially her brother... Her brother who was still gasping on her arms.

She closed her eyes, strongly.

"Nu-number one" Elle said out loud "S-s-sit him u-upright" She stuttered, while she did. Her eyes still didn't open, trying to remember a lesson her mother had given her a long time ago. "Number two," She cried "loo-loosen up his tight clothes" She opened her eyes and worked on the shirt buttons around her brother's neck. "Number three," she said "t-take long, d-deep breaths." She looked directly at Phineas' eyes, which were now looking back at her. "N-note:" She remembered every word "do it with him, be-because he's little and will need your help" She sobbed remembering her mother's advice in case she ever found herself alone with her brother with no inhaler.

She hadn't been paying attention back then, but somehow her unconscious had. And so, she started inhaling through her nose and exhaling through her mouth. When she saw Phineas mimicking her, her mouth swiftly twitched into a relief smile, before going back to her expression contorted.

"Number four: give soft pressures under the collarbones" Elle did, and slowly, air started to fill Phineas' lungs again. "Number five..." She muttered "give your baby brother com-comforting words" She frowned, scared to mess the whole treatment in the last stage. She gulped "It's okay, Phiny." Her voice trembled "Mommy's on her way" her face scowled but with sadness, for the first time "Breath in" She did too" Breath out" She left a gust of air too "It's okay, I'm here."

"Elle" He whispered between gasps.

"Yes, Phineas?" She smiled starting to feel weaker and weaker.

He gave her a brief smile.

"Thank you" He said.

Elle smiled before she saw black.

Lucy had arrived in time to see Elle giving everything she could to safe Phineas. But as soon as the boy's breathing got controlled Elle fell backwards onto the rock and gold ground.

"Edmund! Caspian!" Lucy called in fright. Scare to lose somebody else on the same day.

Edmund and Caspian arrived to her, exactly when a familiar green mist started coming out from their friend's mouth, while the girl convulsed on the floor. The young mentried to walk to her, but Lucy raised her arms to her sides, not allowing them to pass.

They all saw how the green mist floated up and away. Only then, Lucy allowed them to go to Elle. She saw that now was Phineas the one taking his sister on his arms. The four surrounded her and saw her as she opened her eyes.

"Get away." The girl growled at them, suddenly regaining her bronze color on her skin, instead of the pale one she'd had for days.

They exhaled, but didn't cheer. Eustace was still gone. Eventually, they found their road to the crew, but in it they had another surprise.

"EDMUND!" Lucy screamed as she saw a great golden dragon flying away with her brother that had been walking next to her seconds ago.

Later that night, they were all resting around a fire started by the flame breathing dragon, Eustace.

The boy had been enchanted by the golden treasure; they needed more time to think what they would do with Eustace's situation. So, Caspian has decided to stay on the island for the night. It had been a long day for everyone. The first ones that fell asleep where Elle and her brother, laying side by side over a mat. Caspian was resting on the bare ground next to Edmund. They talked about the stars and about Caspian's father before Edmund, too, fell asleep. Caspian heard Lucy and Gael talking in whispers before falling asleep too. He even got to hear some of Reep's stories to the great dragon before Eustace started dreaming, shortly followed by Reep himself.

Caspian was the only one whose eyes still wandered through the stars, when he heard a groan, too familiar for him, after hearing its owner doing it hundreds of time. He raised his head when he saw the girl standing up walking away from the fire. He went after her.

"Hey, what is it?" He called her. She turned around a hand over her chest.

"You scared me!" She grimaced making him smile. "It's uncomfortable to sleep on the floor" she explained before starting to walk away again. "that's all."

Caspian followed her. He could never sleep even if it was on a bed anyways.

"Such a long day, huh?" He asked as he reached her.

"Oh, yeah." She shrugged "Fantastic" She added with sarcasm.

"It's good to see you out of bed" Caspian mentioned.

"Feels good to be out of bed" She added, before taking a deep breath "But...I, uh, also feel like I have now more responsibilities"

"What do you mean?" Caspian frowned.

She came to a stop. They were already far away from their friends.

"Now that everything passed..." she shrugged "I don't think I know how to act like the good sister" She bit her lip. "All my life I've acted like a..." She hesitated "mean person in front of my brother." She crossed her arms "I'm afraid that he'll wait from me to be this awesome sister from now on and..."

"You're afraid to disappoint him?" Caspian asked her.

Elle looked at him, her lips pursed, slightly twitching, and her forehead wrinkled.

"Yeah." She confessed "Any royal wisdom?" She joked "I'm open to suggestions"

Caspian sighted and looked at the dark ocean near them. He had once been afraid to disappoint his people too. He looked at her.

"Just be yourself" He said "Avoid the foreign language swearing" he smiled and so did she "and be yourself... that'll be enough"

"What if it's not enough?" She asked eagerly to know the answer.

Caspian kept looking at her, her long and smooth black hair gleaming under the moonlight, her eyes opened wide waiting for his answer. She was not the lady he had thought would catch his eyes. She was no Susan, but... Her passion, her beauty, her childish sense of humor and her lack of one in serious situations... She was more than perfect. She didn't need to worry about not being enough in anything in life.

"It'll be" He didn't notice he had taken a step to her.

Elle's long lashes fluttered under the moonlight when she felt the intensity of his gaze.

"May I confess something?" Caspian asked her politely. Elle frowned but slowly she nodded. "I don't know how, but... I believe that I've been enchanted by you."

The girl's eyes narrowed as she tilted her head sideways.

"Do you mean as in..."

Caspian sighted. He wouldn't keep pretending anymore, he knew that her time in Narnia was probably counted, after all. He couldn't give himself the luxury of being a coward and avoiding the inevitable until it was too late.

"Do you remember when I told you that I had thought that my heart had left Narnia?" He asked.

Elle's hair floated with the slight breeze as she nodded, her arms still crossed.

"Now I'm more certain than ever before than it didn't" He said and raised a hand to his chest "I can still feel it," he paused hesitatingly "whenever I'm near you"

Elle's eyes fluttered again as she looked around. She took a deep breath.

"Caspian, I..." she started.

"Maybe you should start by apologizing to him." Caspian interrupted her. "To Phineas, for everything." He took a step back giving the girl some space. "You should go and rest" He said, before gulping. "I'll go look for more wood to burn" He murmured before walking away from her.


	38. They were back on the ship

18.

They were back on the ship, after having found the blue star. But the bad news were still arriving. The wind was not in their favor, they would be stuck in the middle of the sea for day...

"Eustace, that's brilliant!" Edmund exclaimed as he saw his dragon cousin pulling the Dawn Treader towards their destination.

Edmund finally felt that he could relax, so he went up to the helm's level and decided to enjoy the view and wind from up there.

"Hey...kid" He heard Elle as she approached Phineas sitting on the stairs near Edmund.

"Hey" Phineas said back

"So..." Edmund saw Elle and he smiled as she saw her fidgeting with her hands, just as Edna did. It was weird to see it in Elle, though, since it was a sign of nerves, and the Italian girl was never nervous. "are we okay?" She asked.

"I don't know." Edmund heard Phineas "Are we? "Phineas asked nervously as if asking for her permission. "You know I can't stay mad at anyone for a long time..."

"Just like mother" Elle said.

"Just like mother" Phineas repeated in agreement.

Edmund wanted to meddle right there, he wanted to say "that's because you never saw her with Peter...", but he knew that it was a special moment for the siblings. Probably their first real talk after everything they had gone true.

"So are we okay?" Phineas asked her.

"Are we?" Elle asked back, funnily.

"I think so." Phineas smiled and she smiled back.

"Good." She said before awkwardly putting a hand around his shoulders.

"Too soon?" Phineas asked her.

"Yeah, too soon." She said before quickly putting her arm away from the kid.

Phineas laughed at his sister and that was when Elle's eyes looked over her brother's shoulder. Edmund had been busted looking at them. Yet, his friend didn't mock at him or anything, she just signaled him, using only her eyes, the crow's nest. Edmund nodded. They would meet there later.

Elle climbed up the mast towards the crow's nest.

"Gosh, I hate Narnia" she muttered all her way up, blaming Narnia of the height of the mast.

Edmund was already there, waiting for her, his eyes in the island in the distance. Romandu's.

"Last time I came up here I almost die of the Black Plague" she joke as she stood next to him.

"Why do you complain?" He said his eyes still in the horizon. "It was your idea to come up here"

"I know, but" she smiled "it's like our official meeting point or something."

"I guess so" Edmund smiled at her.

"Caspian declared to me!" She blurted out, incapable of holding it inside anymore.

Edmund frowned and blinked several time.

"Of course, he did." He muttered with a sight.

"Did you know?" She narrowed her eyes at the boy of her same age. "How...? When...?" She blinked too "Why didn't you tell me?" She asked him with hurt "I probably looked like a stupid, didn't now what to say...If-If I had known..."

Edmund faced her.

"If you had known..." His previous joy had disappeared of his face. "What would you have done?" He was now the one hurting "What did you answered him?"

Elle stood in silence, looking him directly on the face.

"You don't seem to like the idea, do you?" She frowned "You're blaming it on me when you're the one who didn't tell me..." She muttered "I thought we told everything to the other"

Edmund was now looking away.

"Edmund?" She called him "Are you okay?"

He turned to her, looked her in the eyes and then covered his face with his hands.

"Edmund?" She asked again.

"I don't think I can go through this again" he muttered and leaned on the railing. "I can't..."

Elle had missed the signs with Caspian, she wasn't stupid to miss them again. She wasn't stupid.

"Are you..." she bit her lip. If it wasn't what she thought, she'd end up sounding like Regina George. Of course, Edmund didn't know who it was. She took a deep breath "Are you...in love with me?"

Edmund kept shaking his head, his face covered by his hands. Elle took his hands away.

He looked at her, defeated.

"I know you've a lot in your mind..." He started "With Phineas, your mother, your family...your home" He muttered with a frown "I didn't want my feelings to be an extra burden to you..." He lowered his head "Elle, I haven't felt this way in a long time..."

Elle started shaking her head.

"Ed... you know I'm not my _nonna_." She said uncomfortable to be caught inside a mess of long saved memories and feelings. It would ruin their friendship. "Right?"

"I know." He answered instantly, he was 100% sure of it. "That's why I'm certain of it, El" he really sounded like he was hurting. "But I'm also certain that not only I have to worry about not being corresponded, but also about you leaving, about never seeing you again after you do." He closed his eyes as he said this.

Elle grimaced and pushed him.

"Idiot! You could've told about this in advance too!" She scowled with hurt. "I don't know what to say now, just as I didn't knew with Caspian." She shook her head "When did this happened?"

Edmund's face filled with confusion and entertainment, watching at her reaction.

"I don't know when it started." He leaned on the railing and stared at the horizon again. Elle did the same "but I can tell you how." He smiled, his side face backlit with the sunset. "It started with your quirks."

"Quirks?" Elle scoffed "I was preparing myself to hear something cheesy like "the black of your eyes" or "the smell of your hair""

"The smell of your hair?" Edmund snorted "That's creepy."

"Hey, I was just wondering." She waved her hand "Do continue, please. I want to hear the story of how you fell for me" She joked with a sincere smile.

Edmund smiled back at her, just as the last rays of sun fell on her eyes and he noticed that they were actually a dark brown.

"Listen everyone!" Phineas smiled when he saw his sister jumping up to the starboard railing "Just for the record..." She raised a finger as everyone turned to see her.

They were getting ready to get into the boats to go to the island. She had been asked by Drinian why was she coming with them. The close group of friends had looked at her.

"You hate Narnia" Lucy's voice raised while the girl on the railing had still her finger pointed up "We know, you've said just a thousand times" Lucy joked.

"Yes!" Elle exclaimed and pointed at her "Exactly, I do hate Narnia, but..." then she pointed at Phineas and signaled him with her finger to go near her.

Phineas pointed at himself as if saying "me?". Elle nodded. He walked at her.

"My youngest brother" she announced while touching Phineas blonde hair and playing with it, giving him weird hairstyles. "knows something you all don't. And that is?" She asked out loud to everyone to hear "Don't fail me hear, bro" She muttered behind him.

"Elle hates everything" He finished, grinning.

She extended her arms to her sides as if that answered everything.

"We already knew that" Edmund nodded at her as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I'm still at lost" Caspian followed the game.

"What I mean is that you, Narnian people, should not feel...too bad," she announced loudly "about me saying bloody hell of your kingdom." She nodded "So don't get surprised about me wanting to come with you." She finished awkwardly "it was just for the record" she repeated before jumping down.

While everyone got read on the boats Phineas walked to his sister.

"Seriously, why do you want to come?" He asked her.

"You're going, dumb-dumb." She put an arm around his shoulders "that's reason enough. "She shrugged "Also," she smirked "I have to avenge myself against the green mist. That thing tried to kill me."

But Phineas sensed there was something else.

"And?" He asked making her roll her eyes.

"If _nonna_ and mother's so dearly Narnia is in danger, the least I can do, after all this time, is help"

Lucy looked around at the terrifying statues that raised around them on that dark forest of Romandu's island.

The night had fallen during their journey and everyone was on edge in that mysterious place. Lucy saw Elle behind her muttering to herself, while Phineas next to Lucy was fidgeting with his hands and sending his sister reassuring smiles every now and then. Lucy smiled at this, Phineas was not the best athlete or the bravest of man, but he sure had a great heart. On the other hand, Elle was a great athlete, especially with the sword, as Lucy had seen her sparring with Edmund. Elle was one of the bravest and boldest woman she had met, though her heart... well, Elle was working on it. What best evidence than to have her there willing to help them all save Narnia? Edna had raised a good pair of kids.

Lucy's thoughts were interrupted when they walked under an arch shaped tree. Behind it was a table filled with delicious meals. Yet everyone stayed alert as they saw it, it was too suspicious.

Everyone except Tavros who was already enjoying the food in his mind.

"Wait." Drinian warned him.

At the end of the table, sitting, were Lord Revilian, Lord Mavramorn and Lord Argoz, as Caspian recognized them. They weren't moving, yet they were breathing.

"They're under a spell." Edmund said, his torchlight illuminating the lord's faces.

"It's the food!" Caspian yelled before Tavros could take a bite of the apple the minotaur had taken from the table.

They had found Aslan's table and soon placed the swords they had found during the journey, along with the ones of the found lords, over the table

"That's 6." Edmund said.

"We're missing one." Caspian added just before the 6 swords on the rock table started glowing up with blue light.

"What the..." Lucy didn't allow Elle to finish her sentence.

"Look!"

A light in the sky was coming down to them. When it touched the ground, it turned into a beautiful woman.

"Travellers of Narnia" Everyone fell on their knees "Welcome." She was one of the most beautiful woman Lucy had ever seen, topped only by the White Witch. Lucy shivered. "Arise!" The woman said sweetly "Are you not hungry?" She asked them.

"Who are you?" Lucy saw his brother looking at the woman with a dumbstruck expression. Actually, everyone looked the same way. Even Elle.

"I am Lilliandil." The woman spoke up "Daughter of Romandu. I am your guide."

"You're a star." Caspian realized and the woman looked at him and nodded. "You're beautiful."

"Hey!" Lucy heard Elle "I thought that was me!"

The men around the table shook their heads after being distracted by the acutely interruption.

"If it is a distraction for you, I can change forms." Lilliandil said

"No." Edmund, Caspian and Elle said.

The two men looked at the third girl, frowning.

"What?" Elle whined "I know when to accept that a girl is prettier than me." She shrugged and looked at the star "Believe, darling, you should never change the way you look for what a man says" She advice the star and then turned to Lucy "It happened to me once"

"Jim?" Phineas asked his sister.

"Yes." Elle scowled remembering her past "That son of a..."

"Please." Lilliandil spoke again "The food is for you." The glowing woman raised her hands and the candles on the table lit up "There is enough for everyone that welcome to Aslan's table. Always. Help yourselves."

"Wait." Edmund called with suspicious "What happened to them?"

"These poor men were half mad by the time they reached our shores." Lilliandil explained "They threatened each other with violence. Violence is forbidden at the table of Aslan, so they were sent to sleep."

"Will they ever awake?" Lucy spoke up for the first time.

"When all is put right." Lilliandil answers her "Come. There is little time."


	39. Do you know where the seventh is?

19.

"Do you know where the seventh is?" Phineas saw Edmund asked the star woman. He meant the last sword to broke the spell.

"In there." Lilliandil pointed at the island in the distance, surrounded in darkness and green mist.

"Of course, it had to be there" Elle growled in annoyance "Couldn't it be in an island in the sun, were we would be playing and having fun...

"Okay, stop it, Elle." Phineas gave his sister a look, of course she would start quoting a song. She always did out of the blue.

"You will need great courage." The woman said before turning around and looking at the group. "Now, don't waste your time."

"I hope we meet again." Caspian said to the star, solemnly.

"Me too, cause if we don't" Elle looked at Phineas "mother won't be happy"

"Goodbye" Lilliandil said before turning into the star she was and elevating up to her place in the sky.

"I wonder if I could do that too" Elle said looking up to the sky. Phineas followed the others that had started to walk back to the crew. He would leave it to someone else to take his sister out of her daydream "I mean, imagine how easy it would be to travel..."

"Elle?" Caspian called her, since she was being left behind.

They would spend the night at Romandu's and they'd leave first light in the morning. God! Why was she so nervous? She was never nervous!

"In an island in the sun..." she sang under her breath as she had been doing all day walking on that island "we'll be playing and having fun. And it makes me feel so fine I can't control my breath..."

"Elle?" She felt Edmund appearing next to her. She was watching at... actually she wasn't watching at anything. Everything out of the island was so dark, that she couldn't distinguish a thing. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, just" she bounced a little "a bit nervous for tomorrow... a bit..."

"Scared?" Edmund completed.

"Excited, I was going to say" she smiled. "I grew up hearing stories of adventures, and even though I hated them, I always wanted to have an adventure of my own" She took a deep breath "This is it!" Her voice remained low.

"Hey, uh" she took her eyes out of the darkness and up to him as she heard his uncomfortableness "just wanted to say that whatever happens tomorrow..."

"Edmund..." she interrupted worrying that probably their last conversation would be filled with too intense emotions.

"Let me finish, please" he raised a hand "whatever happens tomorrow, above all things, it was a pleasure to meet you and be your friend"

Elle smiled. That's what she really liked about Edmund. Before anything else, he was her friend...But so was Caspian. And she didn't want to think about "that" at the moment.

"Why do I feel like you're saying goodbye?" She scowled but she had stopped scowling at Edmund with arrogance since a long time before. Now her scowls where out of habit, instinctive. "We're not dying tomorrow." She said through her teeth.

Edmund sighted.

"I just..." He looked at the dark ocean "keep having this feeling. That the end is close..."

"The end?" She frowned

"Of what? Don't question" he shook his head. "Just an end"

The way he talked made Elle's excited mood for the following day to vanish.

"Ed," she looked at the waters too "You're a good friend." She muttered "I still hate Narnia" he crunched her nose "but I think I can endure it if I have you around"

Edmund smiled and put an arm around her.

"Worst nightmares", "darkest wishes", "pure evil", the crew had said. Yet Phineas wasn't feeling as nervous as he probably should have been. Having Elle next to him, why should he feel that way?

"Let's get ready." Caspian murmured them all.

"When I grow up, I want to be just like you." Elle heard little Gael telling Lucy as soon as she walked into captain's cabin.

"When you grow up," Elle saw Lucy sitting next to Gael "you should be just like you." Lucy hugged the little girl.

Elle's lips pursed into a smiled, when Lucy's gaze raised and saw her. She looked scared.

"Everything's going to be fine" Elle nodded at them.

Her eyes danced around the room as the silence filled it. Elle frowned when she saw a crumpled piece of paper lying on the floor.

"Hey, what's that?" She asked picking it up and opening the sheet. " _Transform my reflection, cast into affection_ " Elle read out loud " _lashes, lips and complexion_."

"Oh, my god!" Elle heard Lucy gasping.

" _Let me like whom I agree, cause more beauty over me_." Elle finished.

Lucy stood up from her seat.

"Elle, don't turn around!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Why?" Elle did and only found a mirror looking back at her "Jesus Christ!" She exclaimed.

Lucy closed her eyes.

"What a beautiful mirror!" Elle exclaimed admiring the frame outlining it. "It makes my nose look prettier!" She said touching the point of her nose "And my eyes clearer!" Elle started laughing and turned around. "Is this some kind of magic trick?" She raised the sheet of paper. "'Cause it's funny" she threw it over her shoulder before walking out of the room.

Elle sighted as she saw the dark island getting nearer and nearer. She needed to find Phineas, so she went to Caspian's chambers hoping he would be there, but when she walked into the bedroom she only found the owner.

"Caspian!" She exclaimed "I-I was looking for Phineas, have you seen him?" She asked nervously. It was the first time they had been alone since their talk on the beach.

Caspian shook his head.

"He's probably looking for you too" He assured making her smile.

"Good." She turned around but she didn't make it to the door.

"Elle!" Caspian called her.

She turned around just in time to see the young man walking to her. Her heart thumped hard enough inside her chest so she could hear it on her ears. Elle gulped.

"Whatever it happens..." he started.

"Caspian" she interrupted "you don't have to say anything" she frowned "I know." Elle didn't know what came into her, but she leaned to him and put her arms around his waist. She rested her head on his chest. "Thanks for enduring all the crap I've put you through... you're... a really good friend"

Caspian's arms surrounded her and it felt so good to her. The excitement for the battle returned to her veins.

The young king separated from her.

"I guess I like the hard life" he muttered placing a lock of hair behind her ear. Elle set him free from his embrace, she smiled. "I just hope to live longer to keep listening to your commands, your highness" Caspian joked.

"You wouldn't stand me for more than two months in a row, Caspain" She frowned with a smile. "And I don't think you really understand what to have a bold _principessa_ like me would mean for a _principe azurro_ like you" She joked.

Caspian smiled, sadly.

"I wouldn't care to live in the shadows of ignorance ." He muttered.

Caspian took a step to the front and slowly, leaned down to her. His lips lingered just above hers, probably waiting for her rejection. But Elle didn't granted any rejection for him. It was all so quickly, merely a whisper, a sweet peck on the lips. But the way he touched her face in adoration while he did tell everything Elle needed to know about his feelings.

He took a step back, she gave him a one last despair smiled, before walking out the door.

As soon as she did she sighted. Had Caspian and her just kissed? What about Edmund? She shook her head and decided to forget about it for a while. She needed to fine Phineas.

"No matter what happens here." Phineas heard Caspian's voice from the deck, just as everyone else. "Every soul standing before me, has earned place on the Dawn Treader." The king's speech sent goosebumps all through Phineas' arms. "Together we traveled far. Together, we have faced diversity. Together... we can do it again." He felt a hand taking hers. His sister was standing to his right with defiance written all over her face. "So now is not the time to fall in fears and temptations. Be strong! Never give in. Our world, our Narnian lives depend on it." The voice echoed in the morning mist. "Think of the lost souls we are here to save. Think of Aslan. Think of Narnia." The king said before descending the stairs.

"For Narnia!" Cheers we're heard throughout the Dawn Treader "For Narnia!"

Phineas looked at his sister and raised an eyebrow.

"For John Lennon?" He asked her, mockingly, still not believing she was actually allowing him to speak to her.

"No, kid." She smiled "For Narnia"

Phineas smiled before they both cheered too.


	40. They sailed into the island

Hola, amigos. Before you continue reading I want to thank to those who follow this fic and add it to their favorites. The ending is near, to chapters more. So, if you want them review what do you think about the story, which of the 3 or 4 OCs(including Phin) is your favorite, your favorite ship, what do you think will happen. All the story has been written for quite some time now, it probably has many grammar mistakes, plot holes or weird characterization, so I'll probably will edit it all someday, first I want to read the epilogue that I promised and, also, I've always had in mind to write a tiny special, extra chapter at the end of it all. So, as I said before please review! I may not be the best writer, or even a good one, but I'm trying haha

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20.

They sailed into the island, the green mist and darkness surrounding them instantly. Elle heard a thousand whispers around her. Her hand gripped on her brother's hand.

"Whatever you do, don't walk directly into the focus of trouble" Elle said to his brother. "Don't try any heroics"

Phineas nodded at her.

"Go away." Elle let go of Phineas hand and turned around to see Edmund talking to the mist. "You're dead." He said. "No!"

"Edmund?" Lucy got there before Elle.

"Are you alright?" Elle asked him

"Yeah" Edmund answered to the both of them.

"Keep away!" A voice echoed around them all "Keep away!"

"Who's there?" Edmund asked leaning over the starboard.

It was one of the Lords and he had one of the swords! They had found it, so easily! They only needed to save the poor old man, take the sword and sail out of that terrible place. Eustace made the work easy for them as he appeared and took the old man up in the airs only to deposit him on the ship. The old man was acting like a lunatic. Then he heard and saw Caspian. Elle's eyes flickered for a second to the king. They had everything they needed. They were safe. Drinian was already going up to the helm to turn around the ship.

"Do not think." Lord Rhoop exclaimed "Do not let it know your fears, or it will become them!"

"Oh no." Elle heard Edmund gulping next to her.

"Edmund." Lucy asked loudly "What did you just think of?"

"oh, I'm sorry!" Edmund said before he ran to the starboard again.

Elle followed him.

"Edmund?" She asked in exasperation.

Then the Dawn Treader shook violently, making everyone fall to the wooden floor or securing themselves from the railing.

"Edmund?" Elle repeated.

"Remember that story you told me about the big serpent that moved through the pipes under a school?" He muttered his eyes lost in the waters.

"You didn't" Elle sneered.

"This is worse" Edmund's face was full of terror. "This one belongs to the sea"

"GAEL!" They both turned in time to see the great sea serpent coming out from the water and leashing against one of the ship's sides.

"It is worse!" Elle's eyes open wide as she saw the great creature coming out of the darkness. All the excitement she had felt the night before and that morning were both long gone. The only thing she could feel was terror, but not for her. "Where's Phineas?"

Her eyes wondered at the fight that was happening between the sea serpent and the great golden dragon that had appeared to save all their lives...at least until it was thrown into a great rock coming out of the water.

Eustace looked seriously, when the sea beast was about to give a final mortal strike. But the dragon opened his mouth and burning flames came out of it. The sea creatures head catch in fire, and it squirmed and squeaked in pain, before getting into the water again.

The crazy lord, ran pass Elle as he threw his sword towards the dragon. It landed and cut through the creature that had saved all their lives.

"EUSTACE!" Lucy yelled in terror.

Eustace roared in pain as it flew between the mast and the deck.

"ELLE!" The girl heard a scream as Eustace flew above them.

"Is that...?" Elle narrowed her eyes as she saw a body hanging from one of Eustace's claws. "OH MY GOD!" She yelled before going towards the crow's nest.

She never get to reach the rope to climb up, because Caspian took a hard grip from her waist.

"He's gone! He's gone!" He yelled by her ear. "Eustace's gone!"

"But he's injured! What if he doesn't feel Phineas hanging from him?!" She cried as Caspian turned her around "WHAT THEN?!" She was about to lost it too.

"We need to get out of here!" Caspian yelled at his people.

"Rowers" Drinian roared over the chaos. "To your rowing position. Forward at double speed."

A tremor under the ship announced that the sea creature was back. Elle and Caspian jumped out of the way as the serpent jumped over the deck several times. It was surrounding them, just as serpents did with their preys to asphyxiate them. But in their case it would drowned them.

Somewhere in the chaos, Elle's has lost Caspian, and Lucy and everyone she recognized. When she took a glance of Edmund she went after him, followed him. He was going through the prow.

"What are you doing, psycho?!" She yelled as they both walked out through the Dawn Treader's head.

Edmund was calling the attention of the serpent with his torchlight, while he shouted:

"Try to kill me, come on! Come on here." He looked behind him "What are you doing here?! Go back!"

"Shut..." But Elle was the one who shut up, as the serpent leashed against them and instead ripped the ship's head.

"Come on!" Edmund helped her to climb through what was left of the golden head of the ship; it was slippery, because of the water, but she managed to climb up.

Edmund climbed after her, and he was thrown to the ground just in time for Elle to raise her sword at the beast. It went right between its eyes and it shrieked in pain, taking her sword away.

Both Elle and Edmund experienced a long fall from the Treader's head to its deck as the whole ship crashed against a rock, trapping the monster in the middle.

Had it ended? Elle wondered as she catched the breath she had lost in the fall.

She sat up and raised her head only to see the serpent monster turn into a cobra monster. Elle's eyes went spinning inside her head before she fell unconscious to the floor.

Phineas opened his eyes and found himself laying over a pile of dry leaves and twigs.

Eustace, not dragon Eustace, the British boy was lying unconscious next to him. By the looks of the place they were back at Romandu's island. That when Phineas remembered everything, he had been dragged away from the ship, hanging from Eustace's claws. He couldn't remember how they had landed or how was Eustace back a kid.

"Eustace!" He moved the boy.

The young Scrubb immediately opened his eyes. He stood up in less than a second and took the sword laying feet away from them.

"We need to go! They're waiting for us!" Eustace exclaimed before jumping into a run. Phineas forgot Elle's wishes for him to stay out of trouble. He ran after Eustace, through the island.

The passed through rock bridges, hundreds of trees and statues before they arrived at the tree arch they had visited before.

As the two kids neared the table, the sword Eustace was carrying started glowing blue on his hand, just as its sisters on the table did.

Phineas' knees failed him and he felt to the floor. The air was not reaching his lungs nor his head. He had strained himself to the limit, crossing half a forest to accompany Eustace.

His sight was failing him, watching dark spots everywhere around him. Eustace stopped and looked at his companion.

"Keep going!" Phineas coughed as his face reached the floor.

Phineas raised his head and saw Eustace about to put the 7th and last sword on the table before flying back to him as the green mist took a hold on Eustace.

"No!" The youngest blonde boy exclaimed as he fought against the mist. "Phineas!"

Phineas saw the sword, it had fallen right by his right hand.

"What are you trying to prove, Edmund?" Jadis' voice called him from the air "That you are a man?"

"Edmund! Do it!" He heard the yelling of the people underneath him in the background.

"I can make you that. I can make you my king." Jadis' green eyes looked back at him. "Just take my hand." The witch reached her hand out for him" Edmund's eyes flickered down, in the distance saw an unconscious Elle that had been moved out of the danger...but she was still in danger, and she would keep being in danger... "Just give it here." The sword on his hand, Peter's sword, started glowing an electric blue.

"Today" he muttered giving his back at Jadis "I pay off my debt, En." He looked at the beast coming for him and then to the sky "Today, I'll save your family" he raised his brother's sword "COME ON!" He yelled as the beast opened its mouth for him.


End file.
